Otters and Science News: AUSTRALIA IS ON THE MOVE - That's why GPS is off - Scientists are forced to recalculate latitude and longitude coordinates because the country has moved 1.5 meters in only 20 years

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Activists often talk about CLIMATE CHANGE as if it was an anomaly caused directly and exclusively by humans.
The fact is that Earth's history is one of continuous change in climate, geology, and everything else.
Our planet is affected not only by its own geology and the solar system, but by effects from stars in the Milky Way - and beyond as well.
For most of our 4.5 billion year history Earth was uninhabitable for human life.
There were times when the whole planet was what scientists call "Snowball Earth" - completely frozen from pole to pole. It was volcanic activity that reversed that process.
And then the entire Earth's crust has been in continuous move since the beginning. Sometimes tectonic plates have joined into a single continent, only to split up. And then they go on to consolidate again.
The following article is about Australia's own geologic moves, which we only notice because of GPS and other modern technology.

Scientists will slightly over-correct Australia's longitude and latitude to account for movements of about 7 centimetres north per year. The measurements will be precise in 2020

Scientists are being forced to recalculate Australia's latitude and longitude coordinates because they are currently out by over 1.5 metres. The updated coordinates will improve the accuracy of Global Navigation Satellite Systems such as GPS - which will allow for more effective transport, personal navigation, farming and surveying.

Experts at Geoscience Australia will undertake the modernisation program, which will close the growing gap between the actual coordinates and those currently used by GPS. The coordinates were last updated in 1994, meaning Australia has moved about 1.5 metres north in the last 22 years.

Tectonic plates (pictured) are huge slabs of rock floating in the earth's lithosphere

Australia sits on the fastest moving continental tectonic plate in the world, a huge slab of rock floating deep beneath the ocean that is gradually pushing the country north.

Continue reading and see more images and VIDEOS

Dan Jaksa from Geoscience Australia said the updated data is crucial to ensure that global navigation satellite systems remain accurate. Mr Jaksa told Daily Mail Australia that Australia sat on the fastest moving continental plate and was moving about 5mm north east every month.

This equated to a change of about 7cm a year, he said. To accommodate for the constant creep north, reference points would be ‘future proofed’ and actually moved forward about 21cm.

With gradual movement, these reference points would become precise on January 1 2020.

Australia sits on the Indo-Australian Plate, the fastest moving in the world, which is pushing the continent about seven centimetres north every year

While many did not notice the relatively slow pace of change, Mr Jaksa said the earth was actually a hugely changing and dynamic system.

Between 1984 and 1994 Australia’s longitude and latitude had to be corrected over 200 metres, he said.

The framework used by systems today was last updated over 20 years ago

The new coordinates will improve the accuracy of GPS - which will allow for more effective transport, farming and personal navigation

SUMMARY

WHY IS AUSTRALIA MOVING?

The Earth's lithosphere (outer shell) is made up of a number of rigid plates

There are eight current major plates, all moving in relation to each other

Scientists believe that when these 'tectonic' (moving) plates meet another at a plate boundary, geological events such as earthquakes happen or volcanoes are created

Australia is believed to be above the Indo-Australian plate

The western part of the plate is moving towards the Himalayas at about 3.7 centimetres a year, but the eastern part, which includes Australia, is moving north

Sources
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3711799/Scientists-forced-recalculate-Australia-s-latitude-longitude-coordinates-country-MOVED.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a22125/australia-gps/

Australia's latitude and longitude coordinates out by more than 1.5 metres, scientists say - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

RELATED

THE MYSTERIOUS GEOLOGICAL DOUBLE FAULT THAT GAVE RISE TO THE HIMALAYAS when it launched India towards Asia. The ongoing earth shift continues to produce earthquakes in the region, like the recent one in Nepal