Position of Earth's axis in the Paleocene and Eocene
The slight drop in temperature and the smaller change of climatic zones from the equator to the poles in both the Paleocene and Eocene epochs (65-34 million years ago), marked by different researchers, suggests that the Earth's rotation axis projection on the earth's surface was located very nearly to true north and south. In other words, the poorly marked change of seasons may indicate that the location of the Earth's axis was close to vertical. A similar pattern is observed now on Venus where the axis of rotation is nearly perpendicular to the orbital plane (the deviation of 3°24 from the vertical).
In fairness, it should be noted that paleoclimatic studies have not proven to have the greatest accuracy, but extensive development of subtropical and tropical forms of plants and animals in the north and the south, and especially in the Paleocene and Early Eocene epochs may indicate that climatic zones at that time did not exist. The weak expression of the seasons could also be explained by Earth being surrounded by a thick water vapor envelope.
The rotation of the Earth and the length of the day in the Paleocene and Eocene
For a more complete understanding of the physical and geographical conditions that existed on Earth in the Paleocene and Eocene epochs (66-34 million years ago), it is necessary to consider another question. In the book "Disappeared inhabitants of the Earth," chapter on the "Serpent People - The Oldest Inhabitants of Earth," I suggested that on our planet at that time lived intelligent serpent people who were of gigantic proportions. Their growth, according to various legends, reached 10-15 meters. Consequently, they were 5-10 times higher than modern humans, and weighed at least that much more as well.
If such giants were to live now, most importantly, they could not move freely on the surface and it’s possible their bones would be crushed under the weight of their immense bodies. Hence, in the Paleocene and Eocene epochs gravity was less than it is in our modern time. About the same lesser gravity was also present during the Oligocene (34-24 million years ago), as evidenced by the existence at the time of the largest Cenozoic mammals called Andrewsarchus which were up to 8 meters long and 5 meters high, exceeding the size of elephants and all mammals now living.
Most geophysicists and geologists believe that in the Paleocene and Eocene, Earth was about the same size and weight as it is now. Hence, lower gravity could be associated with a more rapid rotation of Earth on its axis which would have been created by the greater centrifugal force oriented perpendicular to the equator of the Earth. As a result of the subtraction of these two forces in different directions the force of gravity at the time could have been significantly less than the force of gravity today.
The most notable difference between the Paleogene gravity and modern gravity had to be at the equator, where the centrifugal force is directed from the center of the Earth, and conversely it would have been the lowest at the north and south poles, where the centrifugal force is almost parallel to the surface of the Earth. As a result of the different distribution of forces in the Paleocene and Eocene epochs as compared to what they are today, in the equatorial and tropical latitudes animals and intelligent beings of a giant size could have survived and around both poles as well but the animals and intelligent beings would have smaller. Differing gravities at the equator and the poles could have served as a natural barrier between the habitats of the two groups of living beings of the Paleogene.
But this is not all. During his time, Isaac Newton suggested that due to this faster rotation, Earth should not have a strictly spherical shape, but should be slightly flattened at the poles (an oblate spheroid bulging at the equator). This assumption was brilliantly confirmed during two expeditions organized by the French Academy of Sciences to measure the shape of Earth (Maupertuis to Lapland in 1738 and Plessis in 1817). With the current speed of rotation, the equatorial radius of the Earth is greater than the polar radius by an avarage of 21.3 km. (The two extremes range from 6,353 km to 6,384 km - Laura's commentings). But it was not always so. At the higher speed of rotation in the Paleogene, this flattening would have been greater than it is today. ***.
Flattening of the Earth at the poles may be another explanation as to why during the "Golden Age" the sun never set in the polar latitudes (not only directly on the pole).
According to the geologist Y. Bastrikova, the gravitational acceleration at the end of the Mesozoic and during the early Paleogene period was approximately 1.5 times less than modern, and this was only possible with the condition that the earth makes one revolution in less than 8 hours. Approximately the same conclusion has been reached by another geologist, E. A. Belshesov, who has calculated the day to be a little more then 9 hours long.
This assumption of lesser gravity and more rapid rotation of the Earth in the Paleogene is consistent with astronomical calculations that extend the length of Earth's day by 2 seconds for every hundred thousand years and the elongation of the earth year as recorded in historical time of 0.7 seconds per millennium.
© AV Koltypin, 2009
© LA Fitzpatrick, 2013 (translation)
We, A. Koltypin the author of this work, and L.Fitzpatrick the translator of this work, give permission to use this for anypurpose except prohibited by applicable law, on condition that our authorship and hyperlink to the site http://earthbeforeflood.com is given
The section "World in the Palaeogene. Prosperity of Hyperborea"
Read my works "Where were the Islands of Immortals?", "Avalon - the lost land or a place in the Other world", "The Promised land - the reminiscences of remote past"
Read also my works "Catastrophe at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (34 million years ago)", "Climate of the Paleogene", "Change of orientation of Earth's axis and climate in the Oligocene" и "Catastrophes and alteration of climate in the Miocene"