Word: crustal
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...will shift to take account of the new distribution of mass. Slowly, the plastic earth will swell in the proper places to make itself a geoid again. When this process is complete, it will settle down with its North and South Poles in new places. Gold figures that modest crustal changes could make the earth turn 90° in less than 1,000,000 years, relocating its poles on its former equator...
Such regularity in a chart usually means that an overall law is operating. Dr. Benioff studied more records, made more charts, and found evidence that the earth generates earthquake-producing strain at a constant rate. When the strain is not released in earthquakes, it accumulates at crustal weak points until something has to give. Then comes a series of earthquakes, followed by a period of quiet until more strain has accumulated...