Sea ice that used to be 15 inches thick this time of year, is now 3 inches in places. Permafrost is also thawing. Is the change in the tilt of the earth related to ocean temperature change and thawing permafrost? Post created by Erica Mitchell on behalf of Eugene B.
We did a little internet searching and came up with a few articles about climate change and the tilt of the Earth. Some focused on whether climate change was causing tilt, and others on whether the tilt caused climate change. One important thing to understand is that the Earth tilts and the Earth wobbles over time. For a pretty interesting explanation check out this YouTube video. According to an article in Scientific America by Shannon Hall, the axis can normally shift as much as 10 meters (32.8 feet) over a century. The melting of ice in Greenland is one of the factors thought to be influencing a dramatic recent eastward shift of the axis. Another factor besides ice melt is thought to be the amount of liquid water held within the continents and in particular a decrease in water caused by drought in Eurasia. We were unable to find any studies (yet) linking warming and melting in Northern Alaska (Wainwright) to changes in the tilt of the earth's axis. (LEO Members please chime in if you have knowledge or studies about this), But research by Surendra Adhikari and Erik Ivins among others suggests that changes to the tilt and wobble of the earth are effected by the changes in global water balance caused by climate change.
According to NSIDC, the March 2018 Arctic sea ice encompassed an average of 5.52² million miles of the Arctic Ocean (Figure 1.), the second lowest in 39 years. The Bering Sea extent saw well below average coverage for March, as it has been for the past several months.
This observation has been forwarded to the International Arctic Research Center.
The Precession Correction: Why the Earth's Axis Moves
The counter-intuitive reason the earth's axis moves the way it does. This video corrects an error in my last video. Special thanks to Jeremy Dittmer for pointing out my mistake. By It's Just Astronomical! (YouTube, Published Apr 7, 2017)
International Arctic Research Center, University of Fairbanks Alaska
This summary was made by the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) in collaboration with NOAA. IARC is one of several research facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. One of our goals is to help Alaskans understand, prepare for and adapt to climate change impacts in the Arctic.