Earth is rapidly changing shape - study

A study by geologist Christopher Kotsakis from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki shows that the rate of Earth's shape change has accelerated. In less than 20 years, the uplift of polar regions has doubled. The cause may be the melting of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, which redistributes the planet's mass.

Geologist Christopher Kotsakis from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has presented a study showing that Earth is rapidly changing shape. The planet is not a perfect sphere but an oblate spheroid flattened at the poles due to its rotation. However, the new discovery is that the degree of this flattening is changing, and the process has accelerated. Over the past 20 years, the rate of polar uplift has approximately doubled. The scientist links this to the active melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Ice loss reduces the load on the Earth's crust, causing it to rise, while meltwater redistributes mass in the oceans, causing the ocean floor to subside. These changes have been recorded since the 1970s. The study is based on data from Science Alert.