were earth's poles once at the equator?

Question

I remember reading about a theory that said something about earth poles once being at the equator. I think that it said something about shift in the rotation of the Earth as an explanation. Does a theory exist? i tried looking for it on-line but no luck.

Answer 1

I believe what you are asking is were the earth's MAGNETIC poles ever at the equator? Obviously the rotational poles are defined as being ninety degrees in either direction from the equator (after all equator means "equal divider"). Your question is a good one, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence to support the magnetic poles ever being much more than about 12 degrees away from the north and south rotational poles. Although it is known that the north and south magnetic poles switch polarity about every 800,000 years! This was only discovered and proven fairly recently (within the last 50 years) by measuring the magnetic orientation of new rock along the mid-Atlantic ridge system. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

No, I don't think so. If you look at the world in ancient times even before people existed, some continents were connected as others were but now aren't. This is called pangea. North America was once connected to Africa. If you were to look at Pangea and compare how the world looks presently you'd see that it almost looks like a jigsaw puzzle. Those continents that are presently apart line up perfectly with the closest continent along their borders.
With that said, the continents and poles could not have moved that drastically. The poles have always been where they are and so has the equator.

Answer 3

It has been speculated that the poles were at one time the positioned around the general area of the equator and the area that is now the equator was the magnetic pole. The reasoning for this speculation is in the geological data. Also, the lush vegetation found in freeze dried animals mouths at the now pole area. I saw a program about it on PBS. You might a Google Magnetic Pole Shift, or check PBS

Answer 4

the axis of rotation has moved with respect to the land masses and with respect to the earth's orbit 'around' the sun. however, by definition, the equator is always the near perfect circle that is perpendicular to the axis of rotation at the center of gravity of the earth

being an imaginary line, the equator can move, and has over very long periods of time.

to make things more complex, the land masses can also move [plate tectonics] with respect to the axis of rotation.

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a little applied math will show that the rotational momentum of the earth is huge and thus tremendous force is required to shift the axis of rotation. Huge does not, however, mean impossible.


does this help?