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Australian Broadcasting Corp reports:
From 1982 to 2005, we measured the location of the North Pole as drifting slowly southwards towards Labrador around six to seven centimetres each year.
But in 2005, the North Pole suddenly, and without any warning, did two new things. First, it chucked a leftie and started heading east, parallel to the Equator. Second, the North Pole more than tripled its speed to about 24-or-so centimetres per year.
Plain and simple, rapid melting of ice on land has driven Earth's North Pole to the east. This solid ice used to be on land, but is now liquid water spread everywhere across the planet.
We've been measuring this change to the land ice with satellites beginning in the early 1990s, right up to our current CryoSat-2, which was launched in 2010. Over the decades, the satellites have taken many tens of millions of height measurements. The most recent analysis tells us that between 2011 and 2014, Greenland and Antarctica between them were losing about 500 billion tonnes of land ice per year — about three-quarters of it from Greenland. This was an increase of two-to-three times over the previous loss rate as measured between 2003 and 2009.
(Score: 5, Informative) by BK on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:39PM
Just to point out, this is about the physical rotational axis, not magnetic north.
I love that they point out that the axis had been shifting southwards before. It seems to me that any such shift is always southwards. Duh. It was shifting south and is now shifting south. But it's still north.
Wherever you go, there you are.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 19 2015, @04:07PM
LOL, I hadn't thought of that. At some point in my history, I've established the difference between true north and magnetic north. Ever since then, I've automatically pictured the movement of magnetic north in relation to true north. So - I went along with the idea that magnetic north was now moving eastwards. Thanks for the kick in the butt - now I can see that the North Pole is actually moving southwards, just as it always has done!
(Score: 2, Informative) by TheSuperFriend on Sunday July 19 2015, @05:18PM
Okay, so the more accurate way to report the story would be to refer to the change in the axial tilt.
Although "north" is always "north", I can promise you that if either pole was pointed at the sun you'd notice an increase in your heating/cooling expenses.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday July 19 2015, @10:05PM
"True north" is north on a map. That doesn't change. Axial north and magnetic north change all the time, but they have traditionally been very close to true north, although all that drift is adding up.
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