By Tereza Pultarova
Earth's tilt has changed by 31.5 inches (80 centimeters) (click here) between 1993 and 2010 because of the amount of groundwater humans have pumped from the planet's interior.
In that period, humans removed 2,150 gigatons of water from natural reservoirs in the planet's crust. If such an amount was poured into the global ocean, its surface would rise by 0.24 inches (6 millimeters). A new study has now revealed that displacing such an enormous amount of water has had an effect on the axis around which the planet spins.
Scientists arrived at this conclusion by modeling the changes in the position of Earth's rotational pole, the point at which the planet's imaginary axis would stick out of the surface if it were a physical object. The position of the rotational pole is not identical with the geographical north and south poles and actually changes over time, so the rotational axis cuts through different spots on the planet's crust at various points in time....
If Earth wasn't on meltdown they would have a more viable argument, but, Earth is on meltdown.
It is realistic to believe the water taken from reservoirs ultimately makes it to the ocean and increases the level of the seas, but, there is a much larger runoff of fresh water into the oceans and it isn't from reservoirs.
March 21, 2023Aylin Woodward and Marianne Guenot
Since 1980, Earth's north and south poles have drifted about 13 feet. (click here)
The poles are where the planet's surface intersects with its axis of rotation — the invisible line running through the center of Earth's mass, which it spins around. But their geographic locations aren't fixed: As the Earth's axis moves, so do the poles.
A study published in March 2021 found that Earth's axis started shifting drastically in 1995, speeding the movement of the poles and changing its direction. The culprit behind that shift, the researchers found, was melting glaciers....
The icefields of Earth are melting. Historic melt is occurring in Greenland as I write this. It is the hottest season in the Northern Hemisphere and glaciers and the Arctic Ocean are melting.
July 20, 2023By Laura Padison
A recently discovered ice core taken from beneath Greenland’s ice sheet (click here) decades ago has revealed that a large part of the country was ice-free around 400,000 years ago, when temperatures were similar to those the world is approaching now, according to a new report – an alarming finding that could have disastrous implications for sea level rise.
The study overturns previous assumptions that most of Greenland’s ice sheet has been frozen for millions of years, the authors said. Instead, moderate, natural warming led to large-scale melting and sea level rise of more than 1.4 meters (4.6 feet), according to the report published Thursday in the journal Science.
“When you look at what nature did in the past, as geoscientists, that’s our best clue to the future,” said Paul Bierman, a scientist at the University of Vermont and a lead author of the study....
Greenland's ice cores are infamous. It has taken decades to work through the enormous amount of information extracted from them.
The rule of thumb is that the Arctic Ocean is an ocean and floating so all the melt there won't contribute to large amounts of sea level rise. It is like an ice cube floating in a water glass. The water level will not change as the ice melts and cools the water. The Arctic Ocean is not a direct analogy, but, does lend itself to that dynamic. The real concern is the land based ice like glaciers.
The Arctic Ocean, to be clear, has had land based ice as the ice forms on land as well as the ocean. But, the majority of the Arctic Ocean is floating, or at least it was until the melting has spawned nothing more than one year old ice. Even that one year old ice is marginally an ice flow. Scientists are having trouble setting up equipment that normally lent itself to establishing a temporary campsite. The ice that is called one year ice is very thin and unable to hold a scientist for very long before cracking. The one year old Arctic Ocean ice is very unstable because it hasn't time to build a strong matrix when the heat hits it again.
Antarctica is all land based with the exception of floating sea ice and icebergs. So, the melting occurring in Antarctica directly adds to sea level rise. It can be substantial.
But, as to Earth's axis, the caps are melting. They are no longer stable. Water is heavy and as it moves around Earth in currents it can easily contribute to Earth's wobble.
As the icefields of Earth melt and are added to Earth's seas and oceans there is a huge weight added that will alter the world's axis.
Besides that there is also valuable studies done as to Earth's rotation. The heating occurring with anthropogenic greenhouse gas pollution actually causes changes, "drag if you will," of the atmosphere on Earth's rotation. So, over time, Earth's rotation is slowing. Add to that the weight of water now in currents of Earth's oceans and seas, there is a lot of change that will occur with Earth. It is not good change.
Polluting societies MUST stop polluting NOW.
Recently, in the last day or so, some of the petroleum industry stated that if there were more trees planted there would be no need for converting from fossil fuels to alternative energies. That is a lie. The heating of Earth has gone way to far. There is also nearly 8 billion people on Earth as never before. The idea planting more trees will solve the problem with Earth's heating is nonsense when one realizes there are spontaneous wildfires all the time now. Trees burn on an overheated planet. Planting more is necessary and the moral thing to do, but, it alone will not solve a problem that is way out of control.
The populations of Earth need to realize this is the only place in the universe they can call home. It is time, as Pope Francis said, to treat it like a common home to all people.
ANTARCTICA MASS VARIATION SINCE 2002 (click here) Losing mass means losing ice to water runoff.
