Ivan Seeking
May24-04, 03:04 AM
The earth wobbles in space. This has been known for over a century by astronomers, and thanks to global positioning system (GPS) technologies, this wobble has been tracked with a precision of a few millimeters over the last decade. Until now, there were good theories as to why this happens, but no one could really prove it...
...To make the Earth wobble, large amounts of mass need to be moved from one place to another so that the Earth is “off balance,” according to NASA-funded researcher Blewitt, who said the North Pole then adjusts to a new position to compensate. Large amounts of water are displaced seasonally when glaciers and ice sheets melt in spring, for example. The mass shifts back when they refreeze in winter.
“We measured the earth’s shape directly,” he said. “It agrees with the wobble. What our measurements are showing is that everything is consistent — the earth is wobbling while it’s changing its shape,” he said.[continued]
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040520065656.htm
...To make the Earth wobble, large amounts of mass need to be moved from one place to another so that the Earth is “off balance,” according to NASA-funded researcher Blewitt, who said the North Pole then adjusts to a new position to compensate. Large amounts of water are displaced seasonally when glaciers and ice sheets melt in spring, for example. The mass shifts back when they refreeze in winter.
“We measured the earth’s shape directly,” he said. “It agrees with the wobble. What our measurements are showing is that everything is consistent — the earth is wobbling while it’s changing its shape,” he said.[continued]
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040520065656.htm