Environment

North Pole Moves as Ice Sheets Melt

The North Pole’s surprise trip toward Greenland is due to Earth's rapidly melting ice sheets, according to a new study.

The distribution of mass across the planet determines the position of Earth's poles. Because Earth is a bit egg-shaped, the North Pole is always slightly off-centre. It's also been slowly drifting south, responding to long-term changes since the last Ice Age, as the enormous ice sheets that once covered large swaths of the planet melted and parts of the Earth rebounded from the lost weight.

But in 2005, the pole suddenly started making a beeline east for Greenland, moving a few centimetres eastward each year. The cause? Rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet.