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- For the first time, scientists have identified why the earth is wobbling.
- The decrease in the ice mass in Greenland is the main reason for this flicker, says NASA.
- According to NASA, changes in the Earth's oscillation could affect the accuracy of satellite tools such as GPS systems.
According to NASA, climate change is impacting the way the Earth turns on its axis.
Over the last century, the axis of the Earth – the imaginary line that crosses the North and South poles – has drifted about 4 inches, and the decrease in the ice mass in Greenland is the main contributor to the flicker, announced the space agency.
As temperatures increased throughout the 20th century because of humans, the ice mass in Greenland decreased.
"A total of about 7,500 gigatons – the weight of more than 20 million Empire State Buildings – from Greenland ice melted into the ocean during this period," NASA said in a statement. A press release. "This makes Greenland one of the major contributors of mass transferred to the oceans, causing sea level rise and, as a result, drifting from the Earth's axis of rotation."
The agency notes that, although melting has occurred in other places, including Antarctica, the location of Greenland has had a greater influence on the waving of the Earth.
"There is a geometric effect that if you have a 45-degree mass in relation to the North Pole – what Greenland is – or the South Pole (like the Patagonian glaciers), this will have a greater impact on the rotation of the Earth "is close to the pole," said co-author Eric Ivins.
Scientists also believe that the glacial rebound plays a role in the oscillation of the planet, but it is not as important as the scientists thought.
"During the last Ice Age, the heavy glaciers depressed the surface of the Earth, as a mattress depresses when you sit on it.As the ice melts or is removed, it slowly returns to its position. initial". "In the new study, which was largely based on a statistical analysis of this rebound, scientists understood that the rebound of glaciers would only be responsible for about a third of the polar drift in the 20th century.e century."
Mantle convection, or the movement of tectonic plates on the Earth's surface, is another reason for Earth's wobbling, say NASA scientists.
"It's basically the circulation of matter in the mantle caused by the heat of the Earth's core," says NASA. Ivins describes it as "like a soup pot on the stove. When the pot or mantle heats up, the pieces of soup begin to rise and fall, essentially forming a vertical circulation, like the rocks that move in the Earth's mantle. "
So, what does this change in the Earth's rotation change for us here on the surface of the Earth?
Nothing that radically changes everyday life, but the change can have an impact on the accuracy of GPS and other satellite functions. NASA Notes.
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