Polar Impact Hypothesis: The Axial Meteorite Strike and the Dissolution of the Proto-Arctic Supercontinent

This paper presents the Polar Impact Hypothesis (PIH): the proposition that a proto-Arctic supercontinent (Borealia) once occupied the geographic north polar region of Earth, and that its dissolution was caused by a massive extraterrestrial impact event at or near the rotational axis. Three empirical observations motivate this hypothesis: (1) the anomalous concentration of recovered meteorites in Antarctica, representing approximately 80% of global meteorite finds; (2) the absence of continental crust at the North Pole, replaced entirely by oceanic basin; and (3) the asymmetric distribution of continental landmasses predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere. We propose that a high-mass bolide impacting the proto-Arctic supercontinent could account for simultaneous crustal fragmentation, polar displacement, and centrifugal redistribution of crustal fragments that eventually stabilized as the present-day continents. This hypothesis generates five falsifiable predictions testable through Arctic Ocean floor seismic surveys, Antarctic meteorite isotopic analysis, and deep sediment core sampling. The V=N/D principle (Katayama, 2023) frames this as maximum explanatory density from a minimum causal event.