Climate is shifting the North Pole for East

Climate change is causing the displacement of the North Pole, due to sudden changes in the Earth's rotation resulting from melting glaciers. The discovery suggests that monitoring the position of the polo can become a new tool to track global warming.

According to the sustainable planet, several computer simulations had already suggested that the melting of ice and the consequent sea level rise could affect the mass distribution of the Earth's surface. This, in turn, would lead to a shift of its axis, a fact confirmed by measurements of the positions of the poles.

Now, Jianli Chen, the University of Texas-Austin, and colleagues showed that the melting due to greenhouse gas emissions is also making its contribution to the phenomenon.

The oscillation of the axis of the planet is a combination of two main components, each with its own cause. One is called the Chandler wobble, and it is believed to happen because the earth not be rigid. Another is the annual oscillation related to orbit around the Sun.

Since observations began in 1899, the location of the North Pole has moved 10 cm towards the South per year, along the latitude 70 West. This is due to changes in the distribution of Earth's mass.

However, Chen's team found that, in 2005, this oscillation has undergone a change abruptly and started a movement to the East, which resulted in approximately 1.2 meters since then. This fact will be directly related to the rapid melting of the glaciers, observes the Newstrack India.

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