VIII. On the influence of geological changes on the earth's axis of rotation

Abstract

The subject of the fixity or mobility of the earth’s axis of rotation in that body, and the possibility of variations in the obliquity of the ecliptic, have from time to time attracted the notice of mathematicians and geologists. The latter look anxiously for some grand cause capable of producing such an enormous effect as the glacial period. Impressed by the magnitude of the phenomenon, several geologists have postulated a change of many degrees in the obliquity of the ecliptic and a wide variability in the position of the poles on the earth; and this, again, they have sought to refer back to the upheaval and subsidence of continents.