Earth shape changing rapidly due to polar ice melt

New geological research indicates that the Earth is undergoing an accelerated change in shape due to the melting of polar ice sheets. According to studies analyzed by geologist Christopher Kotsakis from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica is removing significant weight from the polar regions, triggering a process known as isostatic adjustment.

This weight loss allows the polar crust to rise more rapidly, with the rate of elevation nearly doubling between 1997 and 2015. Simultaneously, the redistributed meltwater is flowing into the oceans and increasing the load at lower latitudes, which causes the equatorial regions to sink. While the solid Earth is becoming slightly less flattened, the redistribution of water mass is causing the gravitational field, or geoid, to become more flattened.