Some claim that this will happen on 12/21/2012 but has this ACTUALLY ever happened?
2007-08-12 09:15:29 · 4 answers · asked by freedb123 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
And, NO, I am not talking about plate activity due to an earthquake. Polar shift is supposedly where the North Pole would be around where the equator is.
2007-08-12 09:56:09 · update #1
The poles have wandered throughout the Earth's history. Crustal shifts are ongoing as the very thin crust is riding atop a convecting mantle. We call this process Plate Tectonics. Any one claiming anything of the sort will occur on 12/21/12 is completely ignorant of geological processes. These events do not take place in a single day, but happen very slowly. Most oceanic plates move at the rate that your fingernail grows, typically less than 5 centimeters (2 inches) a year.
2007-08-12 13:26:16 · answer #1 · answered by Amphibolite 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Depends on what you mean. Tectonic activity (shifts in the earths' crust) happen every time there is an earthquake. The Plates don't just rattle around - they bump up against each other or slide under each other. That is way some mountain ranges are continuing to grow - because they have a plate under them that is being pushed up.
2007-08-12 16:27:22 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the big deal of 12.21.2012 is the 'end' of the Mayan calendar... a time when they believed the 'old' ended and the 'new' began.... folks have been hanging all kinds of doomsday junk on this date, when that's not what the Mayan folks had in mind at all.... WHAT they had in mind, we don't know... just that something ends and something new begins... for them, it may have been earth-shaking, something major like a reversed polarity.... or a super nova nearby... but it could just as well have been when they let women be the kings instead of men for a change... who knows?....
then, too, maybe they're expecting the arrival of one of the Ancients..... to 'fix' things around here.... wouldn't that be nice?....
polar shifts have happened before (the north star won't be in the north one day)... magnetic polarity shifts have happened, too........ and the Earth's crust has been moving around ever since Pangea and prob before that!.....
2007-08-13 08:39:37 · answer #3 · answered by meanolmaw 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, the rapid movement you talk of is impossible.
Continents do move but very slowly. Poles of rotation also slowly shift (hence things like iceages) and the magnetic poles do swap periodically (and that might happen quite quickly...)
The 12/21/2012 thing sounds like some silly numerology myth, don't worry!
2007-08-14 10:58:35 · answer #4 · answered by doc d 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋