Melting ice is slowing Earth's spin and shifting its axis, research shows

Melting ice is slowing Earth's spin and causing changes to its axis, new studies find. The shifts are causing feedback beneath the surface, impacting the planet's molten core.

Climate change is altering the Earth to its literal core, new research suggests. 

As polar and glacial ice melts because of global warming, water that was once concentrated at the top and the bottom of the globe is getting redistributed toward the equator. The extra mass around Earth’s middle slows its rotation, which in turn has a lengthening effect on our days.

A new study offers more evidence of that dynamic and further suggests that changes to the planet’s ice have been profound enough to affect the Earth’s axis — the invisible line at its center around which it rotates. Together, those shifts are causing feedback beneath the surface, affecting the fluids that move around in Earth’s molten core. 

The findings were published in two journals, Nature Geoscience and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, over the last week. 

The studies, along with similar research published in March, suggest that humans have tinkered with foundational elements of the planet’s physical properties — a process that will continue until some time after global temperatures stabilize and the melting of ice sheets reaches an equilibrium. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/melting-ice-shifting-earth-spin-axis-core-rcna162089

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