The EarthвЂ™s axis is an invisible line around which it rotates or spins, turning once every 24 hours, like a perpetually spinning top. вЂњThe faster ice melting under global warming was the most likely cause of the directional change of the polar drift in the 1990s,вЂќ said study lead author Shanshan Deng, a doctoral student at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Credit: Przemyslaw 'Blueshade' Idzkiewicz/ NASA Earth has seasons because different parts of the planet are exposed directly to the Sun throughoutВ theВ year.

The speed of this drift also accelerated between 1995 to 2020 by about 17 times from the previous average speed - from less than 1 cm to 10 cm per year.Д®arthвЂ™s axis is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees. For decades, the North pole had been slowly drifting southward when in 1995 the drift suddenly shifted eastward. Similar to how the magnetic poles migrate, the locations of Earth's geographic poles are not static. вЂњWeвЂ™re fundamentally changing the climate, now weвЂ™re having an impact on how the Earth spins,вЂќ said Gleick to The Weather Network, who was not involved in the study. вЂњThis is both remarkable and expected,вЂќ said scientist Peter Gleick, president-emeritus of the Pacific Institute and expert on hydrology and climate change. The massive melting of the worldвЂ™s glaciers due to global warming shifted the North and South poles in the mid-1990s and altered the EarthвЂ™s axis, scientists report in a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Has the earth shifted on its axis