"Don't ask me how I know," Chandler said, "but we don't have two or even one century. We don't have ten years! When the ice cap at the South Pole was at its peak, it exerted tremendous pressures on the continental land masses."
"The old shifting crust theory?"
"Yes. A theory tossed into discard when the big thaw came at the South Pole. Now, at an almost unbelievable rate, the ice is building in the north. This same seesawing effect has gone on throughout the Pleistocene. The stresses go one way against the crustal blocks of land, then the other way. It might be likened to bending a wire one way, then the other, until fatigue causes it to snap."
"And you're convinced that the crust is about to let go?"
"With catastrophic consequences."
"You're asking me to accept a great deal on faith."
"When you stood by me back in New San Francisco," Chandler asked, "did you honestly think we could tap the core?"
"I don't know," Marta answered.
"Would you have supported me if I had backed the Canadian plan for tilting the world on its axis?"