The surface of the Earth Move North


As you read this article, the surface of the earth under you move slowly toward the north pole. According to some scientists, this shift is greater than they expect. However, outside of minor effect on the satellite, no significant effects will be felt.


Researchers found, shifting water masses around the world, combined with the so-called post-glacial rebound, have shifted the earth's surface from its center as much as 0.035 inches or 0.88 millimeters per year toward the north pole.

Post-glacial rebound is behind the effect of the solid surface of the earth to the reduction of glaciers and loss of weight. With declining at the end of ice age glaciers, the ground beneath the ice began to rise and continue to rise. For that, as expected, a dense layer on the surface will move northward as the effect of center of mass of the planet.


When calculating this change, the scientists combined data from NASA and the satellite gravity Germany Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), which measures the movement of the earth's surface via GPS and the model developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA's ocean mass estimates in for every point on the ocean floor.

Wu Xiaoping, a researcher JPL in Pasadena, California estimates, the main causes is the shift of the earth's surface due to melting of the Laurentide ice sheet, which blanketed most of northern Canada and the United States in the last ice age.

"These new findings were far larger than previous estimates that only 0.019 inches or 0.48 millimeters per year," Wu said, as quoted by LiveScience, Tuesday (28 / 9).

However, Wu said, the movement towards the top surface will not affect life on earth. "The shift is less than one millimeter per year, so it does not matter," said Wu. "Unlike the case if the shift is 1 centimeter. It will bring significant changes, "he said.

Although the plate movement does not affect everyday human life, this shift will affect the tracking satellites and spacecraft.

"Satellites in orbit record information from space and corresponds to the existing instruments on the surface of the earth," said Wu. "This movement will have an effect on how we keep track of the aircraft or satellites," he said.
Recent reports about the shift in the Earth's surface is made by researchers from JPL, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and Netherlands Institute for Space Research. The results published in the journal Nature Geoscience this month's edition.