![]() It's a bit like adding a tiny bit of weight to a spinning top, or applying even the slightest pressure to one side of a basketball as it's spinning perfectly on someone's finger.Īlthough Earth's axis wobbling doesn't affect our daily life, it must be taken into account to get accurate results from GPS, satellites and ground observatories. Unlike the geographical north and south, which stay in a fixed position, Earth's rotational pole varies relative to the crust – a process called polar motion.īut the distribution of water on the planet affects how mass is distributed, so as water is taken away from one part of the planet, the axis starts to move and wobble. ![]() 'Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.'Įarth's rotational pole is the point around which the planet rotates – and where the imaginary axis would stick out if it were a physical object, like the axis on a spinning globe in a school classroom. 'Earth's rotational pole actually changes a lot,' said Ki-Weon Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul National University. ![]()
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