Wednesday August 17, 2011
It's A Small World:
Earth Is Not Expanding
Since Darwin's time, scientists have wondered whether the Earth is expanding.
A recent study has concluded that Earth's radius expands by 0.1 miliimetres a year -- an amount so minuscule that it's not statistically significant.
From ScienceDaily:
The team applied a new data calculation technique to estimate the rate of change in the solid Earth's average radius over time, taking into account the effects of other geophysical processes. The previously discussed geodetic techniques (satellite laser ranging, very-long baseline interferometry and GPS) were used to obtain data on Earth surface movements from a global network of carefully selected sites. These data were then combined with measurements of Earth's gravity from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft and models of ocean bottom pressure, which help scientists interpret gravity change data over the ocean.
Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 09:04 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry