The Earth is Getting Fatter

murk1e writes "The BBC News service has an article which reveals that the Earth is getting fatter. It is well known that the Earth is slightly wider at the equator than at the poles, it is less well known that for years, the Earth has been becoming more spherical. Now it appears that the trend has reversed, and the Earth is getting more obese (in the sense of shape change rather than changing mass). Perhaps the Earth should sue?"

Comments

an effect of modern "civilization?"

[tps12]

This is curious. At first I was going to write this off as yet another natural phenomenon I don't understand. But now I'm thinking that it's pretty odd how the Earth is suddenly "changing direction" like that.

Could this be another example of the effects of mankind on the planet? Perhaps all of our oil drilling and coal mining is destroying the ground beneath our feet as much as the air we breathe! It would make sense that when we remove the Earth's contents from the ground, we destablize the Earth's crust, thus causing expansion, which is exaggerated at the equator.

How long before we finally go to far, and the Earth dissolves entirely? In a few hundred years, we might just be an asteroid belt between Mars and Venus. Now that I think about it, the Universe might be better off with out us. Something to think about.