Cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis

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The cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis is a pseudoscientific claim that there have been recent, geologically rapid shifts in the axis of rotation of Earth, causing calamities such as floods and tectonic events or relatively rapid climate changes. There is evidence of precession and changes in axial tilt, but this change is on much longer timescales and does not involve relative motion of the spin axis with respect to the planet. However, in what is known as true polar wander, the Earth rotates with respect to a fixed spin axis. Research shows that, during the last 200 million years, a total true polar wander of some 30° has occurred, but that no rapid shifts in Earth's geographic axial pole were found during this period. A characteristic rate of true polar wander is 1° or less per million years. Between approximately 790 and 810 million years ago, when the supercontinent Rodinia existed, two geologically rapid phases of true polar wander may have occurred. In each of these, the magnetic poles of Earth shifted by approximately 55° due to a large shift in the crust.