Posted by
Hemos
on from the getting-flatter-all-the-time dept.
RJG2 writes "MSNBC has an article stating that Earth's gravitational field has changed, becoming stronger towards the equator, thus becoming flatter. The cause has yet to be determined, but it is assumed changes in ocean levels are responsible."
Shorter and Fatter
by
Tall+Rob+Mc
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Judging by the diagram, this means that the Earth is getting shorter and fatter. Is this news? Thats what happens when you get older...
Change In Time?
by
ackthpt
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I've been hearing about this on the BBC for the past couple of days. The thought that occurred to me was this: if mass is moving from the poles to the equator, will the rotation of the earth slow, even a tiny amount, but enough that we have to adjust time in a few years?
I expect so.
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Back to the Future quote
by
uncoveror
·
· Score: 5, Funny
"There's that word again, heavy. Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?"
-- The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
A reference on leap seconds
by
Adam+J.+Richter
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· Score: 5, Informative
The earth's rotation is slowing anyway. This is the reason that they insert those "leap seconds" every few years to compensate
for the lost time.
At first, I did not believe that such a small
change could account for the leap seconds, but
you're right
:
Through the use of ancient observations of eclipses, it is
possible to determine the average deceleration of the Earth to be roughly 1.4 milliseconds per day per century.
[...] Over the course of one year, the difference accumulates to almost one second, which is compensated by the insertion of a leap
second into the scale of UTC with a current regularity of a little less than once per year. Other factors also affect the Earth, some in unpredictable
ways, so that it is necessary to monitor the Earth's rotation continuously.
In order to keep the cumulative difference in UT1-UTC less than 0.9 seconds, a leap second is added to the atomic time to decrease the difference
between the two. This leap second can be either positive or negative depending on the Earth's rotation. Since the first leap second in 1972, all leap
seconds have been positive and there were 22 leap seconds in the 27 years to January, 1999. This pattern reflects the general slowing trend of the
Earth due to tidal braking.
Actually its pretty scary...
by
Evil+Pete
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
There appears to be a movement of a huge mass from the poles to the equator over the last 4 years. The article describes how they excluded the obvious culprits: melting ice, earth movements, atmosphere etc. And finally concluded that it is related to ocean circulation. Now that gives me the creeps!
Why the creeps? Because ocean circulation changes can happen relatively quickly and are implicated in the starting / stopping of ice ages. They are crucial indicators for climate change. And when the ocean circulation changes there is nothing humans can do about it.
Hopefully it either isn't the oceans or if it is it wont have a serious effect (dont believe my own words here... but it sounds comforting). Whatever, this requires some serious investigation, just hope they got it wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
Judging by the diagram, this means that the Earth is getting shorter and fatter. Is this news? Thats what happens when you get older...
I expect so.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"There's that word again, heavy. Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?"
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
At first, I did not believe that such a small change could account for the leap seconds, but you're right :
There appears to be a movement of a huge mass from the poles to the equator over the last 4 years. The article describes how they excluded the obvious culprits: melting ice, earth movements, atmosphere etc. And finally concluded that it is related to ocean circulation. Now that gives me the creeps!
Why the creeps? Because ocean circulation changes can happen relatively quickly and are implicated in the starting / stopping of ice ages. They are crucial indicators for climate change. And when the ocean circulation changes there is nothing humans can do about it.
Hopefully it either isn't the oceans or if it is it wont have a serious effect (dont believe my own words here ... but it sounds comforting). Whatever, this requires some serious investigation, just hope they got it wrong.
Bitter and proud of it.