• The Earth’s axis of rotation is shifting due to climate change and movements in the Earth’s interior. The corresponding polar motion is triggered by shifts in mass such as the melting of polar ice caps.
  • For the first time, researchers at ETH Zurich have been able to fully explain the various causes of long-term polar motion in the most comprehensive modelling to date, using AI methods.
  • Their model and their observations show that climate change and global warming will have a greater influence on the Earth’s rotational speed than the effect of the moon, which has determined the increase in the length of the day for billions of years.
  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    If you hate clickbait like me:

    In the PNAS study the ETH Zurich researchers show that climate change is also increasing the length of the day by a few milliseconds from its current 86,400 seconds. This is because water is flowing from the poles to lower latitudes and thus slowing down the speed of rotation.

    Good guy OP with the edit, well done