Geologists: entire Australia “wobbles” due to the winters in Europe and Russia
MOSCOW, 12 Nov — RIA Novosti. Australia, as scientists have found, is not in place, and “wobbles”, moving a few millimeters to the North-West and South-East with the onset of summer or winter due to changes in the position of the center of mass of the Earth, associated with the accumulation or melting of snow in Europe, according to an article published in JGR: Solid Earth.
“These changes are invisible to us, but their traces can be seen in the oceans. Distribution of water on the earth is changing with the advent of each new winter or summer. This movement causes noticeable for satellites deformation of the Australian continent,” says Shin-Chan Han (Shin-Chan Han) from the University of Newcastle in Callahan (Australia).
Han came to such an interesting and unexpected conclusion almost by accident. He tried for several months to understand why satellite data and Australian ground stations tracking the GPS in an unusual way at odds with gravimetricheskie maps, which were obtained using probes GRACE the study of the structure of the subsurface of Australia.
The fact that he found that Australia in fact is not static and is periodically shifted by little more than millimetres in the North-West and South-East in a time when the southern hemisphere summer (January in Russia) and winter (June in our country).See also
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Moreover, the North-Western part of the continent for some mysterious reasons “immersed” in the depths of the sea and of the Earth 2-3 mm, and the South-Eastern part of Australia, on the contrary, been raised.
The puzzled geologist tried to understand why this is happening, by combining data from 14 different stations of the GPS tracking installed in Australia, with information from gravimetrically NASA satellites.
The culprits this continental “reels” were two very far from Australia facility — Europe located at almost opposite from her side of the Earth, and the center of mass of the Earth, located almost in the center of the core of our planet.
As they are connected among themselves and with Australia? As Han explains, the position of the center of mass is not constant and it is constantly changing as a result of massive water movement at the surface of the Earth. For example, during winter in the Northern hemisphere, large amounts of ice and snow covering Europe and Asia, whereas in the summer all the water usually ends up in the ocean.
All this snow and ice mass is a great weight, which literally puts pressure on the rocks of the Earth beneath it, causing the center of mass to shift towards Europe and Asia.
This shift, in turn, “pulls” for Australia, forcing her to stagger in the direction of the North-West and dive into the Earth, towards the planet’s core. When summer comes and most of the snow and ice melts, the opposite happens and the centre of mass, together with Australia, returned to his place
.
Why is this just happening with Australia? According to Han, all the continents of the Earth vary in a similar way, however these fluctuations are most noticeable in the case of Australia, for the reason that it is directly under “Europe” and next to the southern Pacific, which “moves” the center of mass during the onset of summer in the Northern hemisphere.
These “wavering” Australia explain why GPS satellites make the mistakes that recorded Han informed. Similar seasonal shifts of continents, as the scientist believes, should be considered in all navigation systems to improve their accuracy and precise measurement of the number of critical climate parameters, such as the rise of sea level.