SLASHDOT: Global warming is changing the location of Earth’s geographic poles, according to a study published this week. Researchers at the University of Texas, Austin, report that increased melting of the Greenland ice sheet and to a lesser degree, ice loss in other parts of the globe helped to shift the North Pole several centimeters east each year since 2005. From 1982 to 2005, the pole drifted southeast towards northern Labrador, Canada, at a rate of about 2 milliarcseconds or roughly 6 centimetres per year. But in 2005, the pole changed course and began galloping east towards Greenland at a rate of more than 7 milliarcseconds per year (abstract). The results suggest that tracking polar shifts can serve as a check on current estimates of ice loss. Scientists can locate the north and south poles to within 0.03 milliarcseconds by using Global Positioning System measurements to determine the angle of Earth’s spin. When mass is lost in one part of a spinning sphere, its spin axis will tilt directly towards the position of the loss exactly as the team observed for Greenland.”
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Hans Howe 