According to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), due to the significant melting of glaciers because of global temperature rise, our planet’s axis of rotation has been moving more than usual since the 1990s.
- The locations of the North and South Poles are not fixed as they change as the Earth’s axis spins.
- The axis moves due to changes in how the Earth’s mass is distributed around the planet. Thus, the poles move when the axis moves, and the movement is called “polar motion”.
- Data from the NASA shows that the spin axis drifted about 10 centimetres per year. Meaning over a century, polar motion exceeds 10 metres.
- Polar motion is caused by changes in the hydrosphere, atmosphere, oceans, or solid Earth. Climate change, as the new study says, is adding to the degree with which the poles wander.
- Since the 1990s, climate change has caused billions of tonnes of glacial ice to melt into oceans. This has caused the Earth’s poles to move in new directions.
(Source: Indian Express)
