Global Warming
Global warming may affect the position of the Earth's axis. This conclusion and its rationale expressed by several scholars in an article accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The main essence of the work presented on the portal New Scientist.
Earth's axis is tilted with respect to the vertical line at 23.5 degrees. However, it does not lie in one place, and "floating" around this value. The shift of the earth's axis due to the change in the mass distribution on the surface of the Earth. One of the "engines", for example, is the melting of glaciers, which concentrated in one place the mass of ice is redistributed to the vast space.
The authors of the new work found another mechanism that can move the earth's axis. Until now it was thought that the temperature increase Earth's oceans caused by global warming, and, accordingly, raising the level of the oceans, has no appreciable effect on the position of the poles. Researchers have developed a climate model, in which the year 2100 level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will double compared to the current (such a scenario is quite reasonable). CO2 is a greenhouse gas that does not dissipate the heat radiation from the sun.
The authors showed that the increase in ocean temperature will increase the depth of water cover in the coastal shelf areas. Gradually, this phenomenon will lead to an annual shift of the earth's axis at 1.5 centimeters (North Pole has shifted to Alaska, and South - in the direction of the Hawaiian Islands). The final effect is not very pronounced, but it must be considered when forecasting the effects of global warming.