No really though. It’s always been clear that the worldwide melting of glaciers and ice sheets was going to have some effect on Earth’s crust. Like some other impacts of climate change, it’s a pretty straightforward concept – the crust is a relatively thin layer of solid stuff on top of the molten goo that makes up most of the planet’s bulk, so massive chunks of ice press the layer down. Reduce the ice mass, and the crust rises up a bit.
From there it’s not much of a stretch to predict some change in seismic and volcanic activity as a result.
What had not occurred to me was that this redistribution of mass could actually result in changes in how the Earth moves through space. New research published in Science Advances (yay open access!) indicates that the loss of ice mass in Greenland and West Antarctica, coupled with a gain in ice mass in East Antarctica, has shifted the North Pole towards the UK in the last decade, a change from the direction it was moving for most of the 20th century.
This isn’t a big enough shift to cause problems, bit it is an indication of the scale of the changes that are occurring, thanks to human-caused climate change.
StevoR says
And,yes, deniers, Global “Warming” – Overheating really – is caused by us and the increase in Greenhouse Gases.
https://www.co2.earth/
Abe Drayton says
Yeah, the bullshit about terminology has always been a fun one to debunk, especially since it can be traced to their own people pretty easily.
StevoR says
Sorta off topic ish but Global Overheating is caused by things like this fracking consequence :
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-23/condamine-river-bubbling-methane-gas-set-alight-greens-mp/7352578
(That burning river flows into Australia’s longest (permanent) river which in turn flows into Australia’s main rver the Murrya which is one of my city’s water supplies.)
with this sort of impact on another natural system in the same Aussie state :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB9I6UUoo_4&feature=share
And with this trend :
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/hottest-march-in-modern-times/7340246
Its only going to get ever worse. 🙁