Dear Editor,

Some interesting facts I discovered while researching the claim to the land originally surveyed in order to establish state boundaries.

The State of Georgia is using the 35th Parallel as a basis for its claim of Tennessee land.

Parallels are also known as circles of latitude, which are the east to west circular lines with different radii. The only true straight line parallel is the 0 degree Circle of latitude located at the equator, that divides the northern and southern hemispheres.

Through-out the years, different factors may have caused the Circles of latitude to move into different locations; with the movement of the Earth's core and mantle, the removal of weight, of the ice from the last ice age, (Isostatic Rebound) and, with the change in direction of the earths spin axis caused by the tidal attraction of the Moon and Sun (Nutation) and, with the fluctuating pressure on the bottom of the ocean, caused by temperature and salinity changes, and the circulation of the oceans due to wind, (Chandler wobble), the land under a parallel may be different today that it was in the past.

Georgia's claim that their State boundary be located to an "originally authorized location", when the land that existed under that precise location may not be the same, and a survey exists that has been honored, possessed, and maintained for almost 200 years, seems to lead to a false remedy for its water shortage.

Steve Moss