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Global Plate Tectonics and the Secular Motion of the Pole

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

Tomás Soler
Affiliation:
Department of Geodetic Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43202
Ivan I. Mueller
Affiliation:
Department of Geodetic Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43202

Extract

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Analysis of astronomical observations recorded during the last 75 years by international services (ILS-IPMS, BIH) in charge of providing the coordinates of the instantaneous pole conclusively proves a persistent drift of the “mean pole” (≡barycenter of the wobble). A study was undertaken with the specific objective of investigating the possibility of a true secular motion of the barycenter, that is, an actual displacement of the Earth's pole of figure. Geophysical hypotheses available to explain the astronomically-observed drift of the “mean pole” suggest changes in the Earth's second-order inertia tensor as a plausible cause.

Type
Session V
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1980 

References

Soler, T.: 1977, Global Plate Tectonics and the Secular Motion of the Pole, The Ohio State University, Department of Geodetic Science Report No. 252, Columbus.Google Scholar
Solomon, S. C., Sleep, N. H. and Richardson, R. M.: 1975, Forces driving plate tectonics: Inferences from absolute plate velocities and interplate stress, Geophys. J. R. astr. Soc. 42, 769801.Google Scholar