Those of us who live in the Midwest United States seem to have the worst of both worlds. Hot humid summers,
where the temperature often reaches 95 degrees, and cold winters where the mercury can plummet to
zero. Despite these seemingly unbearable extremes, we live in a land of plenty because of the most
fertile soil in the world, courtesy of the Great Ice Age.
Glaciers reached as far south as the current locations of the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, although the
Wisconsin ice sheet, the most recent glacier, stopped midway across the extent of Illinois. Local
legend has it that the glacier stopped twenty miles north of Springfield, the state capital. There
is a grand mound there named Elkhart Hill, more than a mile in circumference. According to the History
of Logan County, Illinois, Elkhart Hill is “the most conspicuous physical feature that adorns the
landscape of Logan County...with virgin timber, on its summit and every side, it entrances the vision
of the passerby, as it towers above” the surrounding landscape.
Glacial advances and retreats also had a dramatic effect upon areas south of the glaciers. Sea levels fell
approximately 425 feet with so much water diverted from the natural cycle to form the ice. It exposed the
flat continental shelves as dry land. It had the same effect as raising the land, which caused rivers to
erode deep into valleys – the Lower Mississippi, Tombigbee-Alabama, and Red River systems for example. As
the ice sheet melted, these valleys were filled with sediment carried by melt water in swollen rivers. Most
of the water south of the glaciers flowed into the Upper Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri River basins. Sediment
loaded water spilled into the Lower Mississippi River forming a huge flood plain that stretched over 500 miles
long and 200 miles wide.
At the leading edge of the glaciers, ice cliffs were up to two hundreds feet high, with cold dry winds sweeping
down from their frozen crowns. The harshest of climatic conditions occurred in this zone next to the ice. Cold
temperatures and strong winds created an Arctic desert, a wasteland littered with rock debris and fine sediment.
Strong winds gathered this sediment from the glaciers and deposited it in sometimes thick, extensive layers called
loess. These deposits cover much of the Midwest and extended south into Louisiana and Mississippi. Loess
deposits form many of the present day bluffs along the lower Mississippi River and are the source of the rich Midwest
farmland we enjoy today.
As the ice sheet slowly spread south, it pushed the sub-artic and temperate zones farther south. Adjacent to the ice
was a land of tundra; followed by a zone of shrub tundra, and then scrub birch forests, boreal (coniferous trees such
as spruce, fir, and pine) forests, and finally, farther south, were deciduous forests.
It is a geologic fact that ice has had a great impact on North America. Besides the geological evidence of moraines,
kettle lakes, gouged bedrock, and erratic boulders, Greenland and Antarctic ice core samples have demonstrated that
levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have fluctuated over the millions of years. Lower levels of CO2 depict cooler periods
in earth’s history, but it is unclear whether these lower levels are the cause or the effect. Although a great amount
of scientific research has been applied to the study of ice and ice ages and much knowledge has been gained, why they
occur is just as much a mystery now as it was when Joseph Adhémar published the first detailed ice age theory in his
1842 book, Revolutions de la Mer, Deluges Periodics.
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), who was also converted to the glacier explanation of geologic curiosities, forged
ahead and integrated all these geologic facts to formulate a theory that a great Ice Age had once gripped the
Earth (Étude sur les glaciers, 1840). In a later book, Système glaciare (1847), he presented further evidence
gathered from all over Europe that supported his theory. In 1848, he accepted a position at Harvard and moved to
America, where he discovered even more evidence of glaciation. By 1870, the theory of ancient periods of extensive
ice was generally accepted by the scientific community.
With a scientific consensus that the Ice Age existed, the quest then became what caused it. The first theory,
introduced by Joseph Adhémar, was based on the Earth’s axis tilting back and forth over a 26,000-year period,
commonly referred to as the precession of the equinoxes. As time passes, the constellations will slowly change
on a specific date (typically measured at the venal equinox), moving backward through the zodiac. Today the sun
rises in the constellation of Pieces at the spring equinox. Two thousand years ago it was Aries; the next two
thousand years, beginning around 2070, it will rise in Aquarius.
This tilt of the Earth’s axis is called the plane of the obliquity and it extends outward to form a great circle in
the celestial plane known as the ecliptic. The angle is called the obliquity of the ecliptic and is presently inclined
at 23.5 degrees to the vertical, but varies from 24.5 to 22.1 degrees. This angle of the Earth’s axis, as we know,
defines the seasons in temperate climates. According to Adhémar’s theory, whichever hemisphere had a longer winter
would experience an ice age. Thus, every 11,000 years an ice age would occur alternately in one hemisphere and then
in the other.
James Croll, a self-taught scholar and one-time janitor at the Andersonian College and Museum in Scotland, objected to
Adhémar’s theory. He concluded that the most plausible driving force behind climate change were variations in solar
radiation striking Earth, called insolation, as a result of earth’s path of orbit, which is elliptical and can vary
up to five percent over time. This eccentricity affects the amount of solar radiation that strikes Earth’s surface at
aphelion (our farthest point from the sun) and at perihelion (our nearest point to the sun).
According to his theory, a decrease in the amount of solar radiation during the winter favors the accumulation of snow.
This would result in additional loss of heat by the reflection of sunlight back into space. If winter occurs when the
earth is close to the sun, winters will be naturally warmer than usual. But if winter occurs when the sun is further
away, temperatures will be colder than usual. Therefore, if the polar area of a hemisphere becomes colder trade winds
will be stronger in that hemisphere, and warm equatorial ocean currents would shift towards the opposite hemisphere
further augmenting the heat loss. If earth’s orbit were circular, the slow wobble would have no effect at all on climate.
Each season would occur at the same distance from the sun. However, since insolation in the Northern Hemisphere is out of
phase with that of the Southern Hemisphere, Croll believed that the ice ages would alternate from the Northern to
Southern Hemispheres.
Although the alternating ice age theory was proved to be wrong, his ideas laid the foundation for ice age causality.
He was the first to recognize the importance of ocean currents, solar radiation, and the eccentricity of the Earth’s
orbit in building an explanatory model. In 1876, a year after his own book was published, Croll was named a Fellow
of the Royal Society of London.
Early in the 20th century Milutin Milankovitch, a professor of physics, mathematics, and astronomy at the University of
Belgrade, revived Croll’s insolation theory and set out on the task of detailing insolation based on Ludwig Pilgrim’s
latest calculations of Earth’s orbit. He showed that the insolation was dominated by a 23,000-year cycle and concluded
that ice ages would be most intense when the solar radiation dropped below a certain threshold. Since the insolation
curve has an approximate 100,000-year cycle, he believed that such a cycle might be seen in the ice ages. He also had
the insight to put forward the idea that the Northern Hemisphere would dominate because it contained two thirds of the
Earth’s land mass. Driven by the amount of solar radiation in the north, the ice ages in both the Hemispheres would
be synchronized.
Milankovitch’s insolation theory was abandoned when age estimates, made possible by radiocarbon dating, showed that the
timing of his ice ages calculations were incorrect. However, isotope studies in sea floor sediments which focused on
changes in Earth’s climate revived it during the 1960s and 1970s. Deep-sea sediments containing the shells of small
plankton-like organisms, called foraminifers, holds a history of climate change. When alive, they fix themselves to
two types of oxygen atoms, the abundant and more common oxygen-16 and oxygen-18. Oxygen-18, the heavier atom, is enriched
in ocean water; the lighter atom is found in higher concentrations of snow and ice.
Whenever water is extracted from the ocean to make more ice, it leaves its calling card in the oxygen. This enrichment,
from oxygen-16 to oxygen-18, is seen in the carbonate shells of the foraminifers (made of CaCO3). The carbonate
precipitates from seawater, so the oxygen that builds the carbonate crystals, reflects the composition of the seawater.
By analyzing oxygen isotopes in foraminifers, scientists can determine when the Earth produced more glaciers, and the
time periods when ice ages occurred.
In sea floor sediments, the presence of 100,000 as well as 41,000 and 23,000-year cycles in climate has been discovered.
But there are still unresolved questions. In glacial data, the 100,000-year cycle seems to dominate, with the 41,000-year
cycle weaker, and the 23,000-year weakest of all. However, in insolation theory, it is the reverse.2 The 23,000-year
cycle dominates and the weakest appears to be the 100,000-year cycle.
One of the more recent theories to explain ice ages links changes in global climate to one of the Earth’s most impressive
geological features: the Himalayas. According to the theory proposed by Maureen Raymo at Boston University, as the Himalayas
grew, massive amounts of rock were exposed to the elements. As monsoon rains soaked the land and combined with carbon dioxide,
the face of the exposed rock eroded. This process of chemical weathering extracted so much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
that global temperatures dropped thus triggering an ice age.3 To show that this was the case Raymo turned to the study of
seafloor sediments and strontium.
There are several types (isotopes) of strontium, each with a different atomic mass. Strontium-87, a heavier variety, is
washed into the sea by the chemical weathering of rock. The lighter variety, strontium-86, is released by the spreading
sea floor and comes from deep inside the earth. By comparing the amounts of the isotopes in different layers, Raymo believed
that she would learn which process was more active at any point in time. Thirty-five million years ago, strontium-87
increased dramatically, coinciding with the Himalayan uplift.
With the strontium evidence, Maureen Raymo believes she solved the ice age mystery. First, the uplift of the Tibetan
region intensified the Indian monsoon. Then the monsoon rains eroded the mountains, stripping carbon dioxide from the
air. Finally, with less carbon dioxide, the atmosphere gradually cooled.
Although distinct ocean currents have been known for some time, scientists have recently determined that ocean currents
play a crucial role in climate and weather. New research has determined that shallow, warm water currents from the Pacific
flow westward, around Africa, and then northward along the African and European coasts. The flow of these waters keeps
Europe balmy in contrast to their counterpart, Labrador, across the Atlantic. It provides Western Europe with a third as
much warmth as the Sun does, and is part of a global oceanic system that maintains the climatic status quo.
In the North Atlantic, the Gulf Stream carries heat in the form of warm water to the north and east. And as it moves
north, it evaporates and transfers its heat to the coastal areas. The warm water becomes saltier with evaporation, and
when it reaches the latitude of Iceland, its density reaches a point that it sinks to the bottom. Then it becomes part
of the cold-water return cycle and flows southward in the Atlantic, around Africa and back to the Pacific.
If by some way the warm waters ceased, Europe would enter a mini-ice age. Current studies suggest that it is a possibility
and that this current conveyor belt in the North Atlantic is unpredictable. Since the end of the last ice age, the arctic
ice cap has continued to melt, allowing fresh water into the North Atlantic. If too much fresh water enters the ocean
(thereby diluting its salt content and keeping it less dense) it would not sink and join the return currents at the bottom.
It would remain where it is, blocking the warm currents from entering, and altering the climate of Europe.
Donald Patten proposes a completely different theory as to the cause of the ice age, one that involves a catastrophe
of global proportions. Although his idea seems to be as much theologically driven as scientific, he puts forth a well
researched and plausible explanation of the affects a comet “near miss” would have on earth’s climate. He also discusses
motives and beliefs, almost a creationist’s rebuttal to geologic uniformitarianism, and provides a history of scientists
and writers espousing a catastrophic approach to earth geology. Since the 1920s, George McCready Price, Byron C.
Nelson, Alfred M. Rehwinkel, Henry Morris, Charles Hapgood, Ivan Sanderson, Immanuel Velikovsky, and Dolph E. Hooker,
among others, have carried the banner of a sudden catastrophic approach to explaining ice ages.5
The phenomenon that provides Patten and others with some punch to their proposition is the bizarre evidence of the
frozen mammoths, which is still a mystery today. Although mammoths are not the sole animals that have been found frozen
(rhinoceros, sheep, horses, oxen, lions, tigers, and bison have also been found), as an extinct species, they have been
at the forefront of scientific research. Their remains, sometimes whole, have been found in Siberia and Alaska by the
tens of thousands and have provided the world with an ongoing supply of ivory.
Patten also explains, in his comet near-miss theory, the formation of mountain ranges and why they are distributed in an
arc across the continents. When this icy visitor came too close to Earth, it became trapped in orbit for a period of
nine months, circling as another moon. On two occasions when it came quite close, its gravitational pull exerted extreme
force, not only on the oceans, which created giant tidal waves, but also on the earth’s molten core. Magma in the core
reacted in much the same way as the oceans do to a gravitation force. As a result with each close pass of the comet, a
wave of molten rock was pulled upward forcing the earth’s crust upward.
As this comet danced in Earth’s orbit, ice that had broken away from its mass was deposited in vast quantities through
electromagnetic defection. According to Patten’s theory, six million cubic miles of ice was dumped on the northern and
southern hemispheres each; ice that’s temperature was –150o. At the center nodes, the ice would have been three miles
thick and feathering out at the edges. The ice appeared suddenly, not over a long period of time. Only this, according
to the theory, accounts for the sudden freezing of millions of animals.
He also argues that the shape of the ice sheets fits the comet near miss theory. The continent-sized glaciers of the ice
age were thickest at the center. From today’s climate in Antarctica, we know that very little snow falls at the center of
the continent due to the cold dry air’s inability to retain moisture. It is a desert wasteland of rock and gravel. On the
edges, however, there is substantial snowfall because of the convergence of warm, moist air with cold air. If snow were
to be the primary factor in creating the ice of the ice age, then its accumulation would be thickest at the periphery and
not the center.
One of the most intriguing human elements of Charles Hapgood’s wandering pole theory is that Albert Einstein
believed researching the subject was desirable and that it “would not be justified to discard the idea a
priori as adventurous.”8 Einstein’s letter to Charles Hapgood, dated November 24, 1952 is published in his
book Path of the Pole.
I frequently receive communications from people who wish to consult me concerning
their unpublished ideas. It goes without saying that these ideas are very seldom possessed of scientific
validity. The very first communication, however, that I received from Mr. Hapgood electrified me. His idea
is original, of great simplicity, and – if it continues to prove itself – of great importance to everything
that is related to the history of the earth’s surface.9
Hapgood’s theory began with an interest in geography and ancient maps, which led to his re-discovery of the
Piri Reis Map, a hand drawn Turkish naval map that had been gathering dust since the 16th century. According to its
sources, the map was drawn a few years after Columbus launched his first voyage to the Americas. Admiral Piri Reis,
cartographer of the map, noted that his world map was derived from very old reference maps. Upon close inspection,
Hapgood noticed evidence of spherical trigonometry in the map’s layout and a detailed knowledge of global geography
that included the coastline of Antarctica at some remote time when it was free of ice. The map was accurate at a time
when no one should have known the coastal areas of Antarctica. This prompted Hapgood to search for an explanation
that eventually led to his controversial theory.
According to Hapgood’s theory of wandering poles, every 20,000 to 30,000 years the earth’s continental plates move
as a single unit, rapidly over great distances. This phenomenon occurs today, known as continental drift, but at a
much slower rate. If conditions arise that created an imbalance in the earth’s gyroscopic rotation, his theory
stipulates that the earth’s plates would move in such a manner in order to return the earth to a balanced spin.10
Geologic evidence, suggesting that the poles may have been in different positions during the Pleistocene, is impressive.
Based on geomagnetic and carbon dating evidence, he identifies the locations of the four previous poles and maps out
their transitional paths. Seventeen thousand years ago, the North Pole was located in the Hudson Bay and over 5,000
years moved to it’s current position. Before that, the North Pole was located in the Greenland Sea 75,000 year ago,
and moved southwest to the Hudson Bay. Prior to the Greenland Sea location, the pole was located in the Yukon Territory
of Canada.11
How this movement occurs is easily explained by the earth’s composition. We live on the crust, the outer surface,
which is comprised of six main continental plates and a few smaller ones. The inner core consists of solid iron
surrounded by an outer core of liquid iron. Surrounding the core is the mantle that is composed of molten rock
(lower mantle) and solid rock (upper mantle). The upper mantle and crust are loosely connected and able to slide
against each other, the least effect of which is continental drift. Theoretically, each layer is capable of movement
independent of other layers. According to Hapgood, the top two layers can slide, if certain forces were applied, while
the core, and the axis and orbit of the planet, remain unchanged. The difficult part is what force causes the slippage.
Whatever way the poles shifted, regional climates everywhere would change dramatically. The displaced polar ice would
melt, causing incredible floods. The new polar areas would freeze in a relatively short amount of time, almost instantly
killing life that was accustomed to a warmer climate. Areas of climatic convergence would shift; deserts would receive
rain while rainforests would become deserts. Plant and animal life would need to adapt to the new conditions or become
extinct. The evidence suggests as much.
Frozen deposits of soil, rock, plant and animal remains exist in Alaska, commonly known as “muck.” University of New
Mexico Professor Frank Hibben explains that: In many places, Alaskan muck is packed with animal bones and debris in
trainload lots. Bones of mammoths, mastodons, several kind of bison, horses, wolves, bears and lions tell a story of
a faunal population… within this frozen mass lie the twisted parts of animals and trees intermingled with lenses of ice
and layers of peat and mosses. It looks as though in the midst of some cataclysmic catastrophe of ten thousand years ago
the whole Alaskan world of living animals and plants was suddenly frozen in mid-motion like a grim charade…twisted and
torn trees are piled in splintered masses … at least four considerable layers of volcanic ash may be traced in these
deposits, although they are extremely warped and distorted.12
In Southern California’s La Brea tar pits more than 565 species of animals were fossilized in the sticky tar (asphalt) some
10,000 years ago. During the first excavation in 1906, scientists found a bone bed that contained over seven hundred
saber-toothed tiger skulls. Combined with wolf skulls, they averaged twenty per cubic yard.13 There existed more bones
than tar and were discovered “broken, mashed, contorted and mixed in a most heterogeneous mass,”14 nearly identical to
the muck of Alaska. 100,000 fossilized birds were also recovered representing over 138 species, 19 of which are extinct.
During the same period of time mammoths were being killed in a similar fashion. John Massey, of the Smithsonian, estimated
that more than 500,000 tons of mammoth tusks were buried along Siberia’s Arctic coastline.15 Several dozen frozen mammoth
carcasses have been found with the flesh still intact, such as the Jarkov Mammoth.16 They died suddenly, and found in
their stomachs was undigested plant matter that included grass, bluebells, wild beans and buttercups. Scientists have
concluded that some of the mammoths died of asphyxiation, but in general the cause of death has not been determined.
A pole shift from the Hudson Bay to its current position would explain the mysterious extinction and mass burials that
occurred at the end of the Pleistocene. During the Hudson Bay pole, the North Siberian coastline would have had the
same latitude as Japan does today, far outside of the Arctic Circle. But when the poles shifted, the climate would
have rapidly changed within a matter of days, from a summer savannah where mammoths grazed to a frozen wasteland.
In his theory, Hapgood also explains the mountain building forces as a function of gravity. Although the forces that
build a mountain are obviously complex, the principles are simple to explain. As an area of land moves towards the pole,
the radii of the earth are shorter, the circumference is shorter, and the surface required is less. (Polar and equatorial
circumference differ by 13 miles.) A surplus of surface exists, and this, being pulled down by gravity, must fold.
Mountains are not being pushed up, but the surface is being pulled down nearer to the earth’s core. The force of gravity
over a large area folds the surface in a small area to accommodate its new position on the globe. In the opposite
direction, as land moves away from the pole, it must expand. Major parallel faults will occur with minor faults at
right angles. Where these faults occur molten rock from below fills up the crevasse. According to Hapgood, the movements
of land to and away from the equator over millions of years, have produced the mountain ranges we admire today.
Regardless if the ice age was a natural phenomenon or the result of an interstellar visitor, the climate drastically
altered life for those who were alive. It is a known geologic fact that at the end of the last ice age, 10,000 BC,
many North American species became extinct; including the mammoths, camel, horse, ground sloth, peccaries (pig-like
hoofed mammals), antelope, American elephant, rhinoceros, giant armadillo, tapirs, saber-toothed tigers and giant bison.
It also affected the climates of lower latitudes in Central and South America. Those lands also have revealed evidence
of mass extinction. The mechanism that brought these animals to their graves is still a mystery.
End Notes
Walls of Snow and Ice
According to scientists, over the course of the last two million years, at least four (possibly six),
periods of glaciation ploughed out an assortment of rock from Canada, moved it south in a 100-foot
high flow of ice and snow, pulverized it against bedrock, and deposited it on the Midwest plain.
The ice sheet produced large quantities of gravel, sand, and silt. A mixture of these materials,
called till, forms much of the soil in the Ohio and Upper Mississippi River valleys. Remnants of
these vast sheets of ice can still be seen today in the form of numerous lakes that pepper the
northern regions of the Midwest. Retreating glaciers left large depressions in the earth’s crust
which filled with melt water, the most magnificent of which are the Great Lakes. Other, larger
ones, such as Lake Winnipeg, Reindeer, Athabasca, Great Slave, and Great Bear in Canada, existed
at one time but have since drained off and disappeared.1
Eighteen thousand years ago, when the last glaciers were at their maximum southern extent, the Gulf Coast was also
colder and drier. Rainfall in southern Louisiana and Mississippi was as much as 40 inches less, annually, than it
is today. Boreal forests extended as far south as northern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Sparse forests of
northern pine likely covered the north central Gulf Coast. Oak and hickory forests grew in the river bottoms.
Florida was drier and its average annual temperature was as much as 10 degrees cooler and was covered with sparse,
scrubby vegetation, sand dunes, and open grasslands. Tall grass prairie, with pine and aspen growing in the river
bottoms, adorned Central Texas. West Texas was likely a prairie covered with short grass.
Discovering the Ice Age
As early as 1787, Bernard Kuhn believed that erratic boulders in Swiss Jura were the result of ancient glaciation.
After James Hutton visited Jura seven years later, he arrived at the same conclusion. However, until the first half
of the 19th century, the prevailing model to explain the observable geologic evidence was that it was a result of
the great biblical flood. A German born geologist, Jean de Charpentier (1786-1855), was captivated by erratic
boulders and moraines (mounds of glacial debris), and formed the first theory of glaciation during the 1830s. In
1841, Test on the Glaciers, his theory was published It was the first detailed, scientific case for glaciation.
The Earth’s Orbit and Wobble
Himalayan Uplift and the Global Climate
Ocean Currents and a New Ice Age
This same type of ocean currents exists in the South Atlantic near Antarctica. There, ocean currents flow along the coast.
Deep cold currents flow back from the South Atlantic, south of Africa and on to Australia. Cold, salty water off the
Antarctic coast sinks into the depths, thereby boosting its push to the interconnected system of ocean currents. According
to Wallace Broecker of Columbia University, Antarctic waters are sinking only at a third of the rate they were a hundred
years ago. But this will have a different effect. If correct, the slowdown in the Antarctic deep current‚ that began a
century ago will make the Antarctic colder and the Gulf Stream warmer. The current global warming trend began during the
1880s and received a boost during the 1870s from man. Broecker believes that this warming is man-made and is fighting
against a natural cooling trend.4
The Visiting Comet
Russia has a long tradition in providing ivory from Siberian islands for the past 2,000 years. Between 1880 and 1900,
nearly 20,000 tusks were taken from a single island. It is estimated that there may be up to 3 million mammoths still
buried in Siberia.6 According to a National Geographic article, experts estimate that there are 600,000 tons of ivory
still available for recovery.7 A sudden calamity, such as an asteroid impact or comet near miss, fares well in explaining
the death of millions of animals. Its precedent is seen in the greatest extinction of all at the end of the Cretaceous
Period, when a giant asteroid impact resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs.
Wandering Poles
–Albert Einstein
In Hapgood’s opinion, the centrifugal momentum of ice caps, eccentric to the poles, provides this force. The weight of
the ice on the poles creates an imbalance in the Earth's rotation. Eventually, this builds to a point where a change
is required to correct the imbalance. Hapgood realized that the entire planet did not need to be repositioned around
its axis to maintain its balance. Only the outer crust needed to move, just as the loose skin of a peeled orange can
slide around the inner fruit. He envisioned a catastrophic and dramatic move of the entire crust that allowed the polar
ice caps to melt in a new, warmer climate. Ice would then begin to build at the new poles, awaiting the next shift. The
crust’s rapid movement, of course, would create environmental mayhem. If the current level of seismic and volcanic
activity were a result of plates shifting between one and four centimeters per year, a much faster rate of change would
likely be apocalyptic.
Did the Ice Age Really Exist?
The various hypotheses explaining the great ice age appear as a grab bag of theoretical ‘pick and choose.’ Each is
backed by scientific evidence and has its own aficionados. Each tells a story of earth’s past and all fall into one
of two general categories. Those that postulate slow gradual climatic change, and those that describe a sudden
catastrophic beginning to the ice age. However, Hapgood and his theory of pole shift imply that the ice age never
exited. But that is a matter of perception, geographically speaking. There is always an existing ice age near the
poles. North America was located close to the Artic Circle and was naturally covered in ice because of its position,
as were the various poles before it (as is our current pole). With the exception of mountain formation, the mechanics
of pole shift are essentially the same as slow continental drift, only it occurs during a much smaller period of time.
This, of course, has made his theory controversial.
