Climate Change Shifting North Pole
- 11 years ago
Climate change is shifting Earth's poles.
According to a study in Geophysical Research Letters, the Earth’s geographic poles are shifting as a result of global warming.
The University of Texas at Austin researchers identified the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet as the primary cause of the North Pole’s centimeters-per-year increased movement since 2005.
Prior to that year, starting in 1982, the pole drifted southeast towards Labrador, Canada at a rate of 2 milliarcseconds – about 6 centimeters - per year.
Since 2005 it’s changed speed and direction, moving at 7 milliarcseconds per year on an eastbound path towards Greenland.
The movement that caught the attention of the lead author wasn’t the typical season-driven polar drift, it was a change in the underlying year-long continental drift pattern.
He and his colleagues, with the help of some of NASA’s extensive data, concluded that the change was overwhelmingly attributable to ice loss and the rising sea levels it brings.
The melting of ice in the Arctic has increased at such a rapid rate that some experts believe there could be iceless seasons in the area in as little as 10 to 30 years.
According to a study in Geophysical Research Letters, the Earth’s geographic poles are shifting as a result of global warming.
The University of Texas at Austin researchers identified the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet as the primary cause of the North Pole’s centimeters-per-year increased movement since 2005.
Prior to that year, starting in 1982, the pole drifted southeast towards Labrador, Canada at a rate of 2 milliarcseconds – about 6 centimeters - per year.
Since 2005 it’s changed speed and direction, moving at 7 milliarcseconds per year on an eastbound path towards Greenland.
The movement that caught the attention of the lead author wasn’t the typical season-driven polar drift, it was a change in the underlying year-long continental drift pattern.
He and his colleagues, with the help of some of NASA’s extensive data, concluded that the change was overwhelmingly attributable to ice loss and the rising sea levels it brings.
The melting of ice in the Arctic has increased at such a rapid rate that some experts believe there could be iceless seasons in the area in as little as 10 to 30 years.