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Adjusting the Geoid

5 October 2022
Geology

We have an interesting article at https://phys.org/news/2022-09-definitive-proof-elusive-sea-fingerprints.html … which is said to provide data for future sea level changes as a result of global warming. However, the same set of circumstances can be said to show changes in the earth’s geoid. That may have nothing to do with warming – or cooling. We are informed that when the ice melts, and in this instance going back to the last glacial period, the level of the oceans in the north drops while thousands of miles away, sea levels rise. This is precisely what happens when the geoid changes as water is moved as a result of the equatorial bulge shifting location – if only slightly. Water in the oceans is redistributed. We may then ask what have they discovered? Well, it is an interesting article and an interesting area of investigation. It is assumed the poles have never moved so that means the geoid does not change a great deal, if any. Yet, their research has shown precisely what happens when the poles move slightly as a result of factors unknown – but presumably involving electro-magnetic processes. For example, we have the Laschamp Event preceding the Late Glacial Maximum, and the Gothenberg Event at the end of the Late Glacial Maximum. It might be coincidence of course.

The research  will be added to models to interpret sea level change as glacial ice continues to diminish, and the Arctic Sea warms up. That is the stated ambition. However, sea ice has to play ball and at the moment it is accumulating rather than decreasing. See https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo0926

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