{"id":935595,"date":"2026-10-21T01:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935595\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T01:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:32:09","slug":"earths-poles-have-dramatically-shifted-4-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935595\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth&#8217;s Poles Have Dramatically Shifted 4 Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        Earth&#8217;s North and South poles haven&#8217;t merely drifted\u2014they&#8217;ve apparently taken four significant road trips. A new study in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.aec8423?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fphys.org%2F\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Science<\/a> finds that over the past 320 million years, Earth&#8217;s solid outer shell, aka the crust, has abruptly shifted around its core at least four times, in episodes known as &#8220;true polar wander,&#8221; reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/earths-true-north-and-south-poles-have-wandered-four-times-over-the-past-320-million-years-study-suggests-180989698\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Smithsonian<\/a>. Unlike the slow motion of tectonic plates, these bursts of movement can change climate systems, per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2591587-earths-geographic-poles-wander-more-than-we-had-thought\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Scientist<\/a>.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        Researchers spotted the events\u2014the most recent of which took place 20 million to 30 million years ago\u2014by modeling how sea levels would rise and fall if the planet&#8217;s bulk moved beneath its equatorial bulge of water, per Smithsonian. The scientists say that these episodes can disrupt ocean currents, climate, and ecosystems, noting that they&#8217;re happening today at about 4 inches a year, largely driven by melting ice. What sets them off remains unknown.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Earth&#8217;s North and South poles haven&#8217;t merely drifted\u2014they&#8217;ve apparently taken four significant road trips. A new study&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,6045,68,10483,129,75,213893,502203,128,110579,2286],"class_list":["post-935595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-discoveries","tag-earth","tag-environment","tag-north-pole","tag-poles","tag-science","tag-south-pole","tag-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}