The natural wander of earth’s rotational pole suddenly changed direction beginning in 2002 in response to the sudden rapid melting of southern Greenland and west Antarctic ice. The earth’s natural wobble is most sensitive to changes in the weight of water or ice at 45 degrees north or south. Huge amounts, about 278 gigatons per year, of ice have melted from Greenland’s ice sheet. Most of the ice loss has been in southern Greenland where it can have a big impact on polar wander.
West Antarctic ice loss of about 92 gigatons per year since 2002 and shifts of earth’s water in response to atmospheric/oceanic shifts such as La Niña and El Niño have also been observed in the details of the data, but the ice loss in Greenland caused the sudden shift in the wander of the pole towards the Greenwich meridian that runs through England.
The shift in the direction of polar wander will not directly impact human activities but the changes in ocean currents and climate that the huge amounts of melting may cause is a matter of great concern to north Americans and Europeans because it could impact the Gulf Stream and the formation of deep water in the north Atlantic. The sudden change in the natural drift in the poles is an indication of how just how massive the impact of greenhouse gas increases, caused by fossil fuel consumption, deforestation, agriculture, and other human activities, has become. Human impacts have noticeably shifted the earth’s poles.
The scientific report is available in full at advances.sciencemag.org/...