{"id":493521,"date":"2026-02-23T06:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/493521\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T06:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:10:07","slug":"antarcticas-gravity-hole-growing-stronger-scientists-find","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/493521\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctica’s Gravity Hole Growing Stronger, Scientists Find"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, scientists have been studying intriguing \u201cgravity holes<\/a>,\u201d which are enormous depressions in the Earth\u2019s crust where the effects of gravity are significantly lower than average.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an especially pertinent phenomenon in the Antarctic, a region that has seen significant changes not just due to global warming, but far longer-term climate changes spanning tens of millions of years \u2014\u00a0long before the emergence of humans and their environmentally disastrous footprint<\/a> on the planet. The effects of gravity are particularly weak beneath the icy continent when accounting for our planet\u2019s rotation, the result of slow rock movements deep beneath the ice.<\/p>\n

As detailed in a new paper<\/a> published in the journal Scientific Reports, University of Florida geophysics professor Alessandro Forte and Paris Institute of Earth Physics researcher Petar Gli\u0161ovi\u0107 found that these rock movements are correlated to major changes in Antarctica\u2019s climate, suggesting how the area\u2019s gravity shifts may have allowed its ice sheets to grow.<\/p>\n

The pair created a detailed map of the Antarctic\u2019s \u201cgravity hole\u201d to study how it changed over millions of years, using a wealth of global earthquake recordings from across the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine doing a CT scan of the whole Earth, but we don\u2019t have X-rays like we do in a medical office,\u201d said Forte in a statement<\/a>. \u201cWe have earthquakes. Earthquake waves provide the \u2018light\u2019 that illuminates the interior of the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using computer models, the team reconstructed the state of Antarctic\u2019s gravity hole 70 million years ago, around the time when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. They determined that the hole has gained strength over tens of millions of years, coinciding with major changes in the continent\u2019s climate system and the widespread formation of glaciers, which in turn, had sweeping effects on sea levels the acidity of our planet\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n

While the findings aren\u2019t a definitive causal link between the two \u2014 rock movements and shifting gravity causing ice to grow \u2014 Forte and Gli\u0161ovi\u0107 are hoping to test whether sea level changes may be directly influenced by this strengthening gravity hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does our climate connect to what\u2019s going on inside our planet?\u201d Forte asked rhetorically in the statement. \u201cIf we can better understand how Earth\u2019s interior shapes gravity and sea levels, we gain insight into factors that may matter for the growth and stability of large ice sheets.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on gravity holes: Scientists Intrigued by \u201cGravity Hole\u201d at Bottom of Ocean<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, scientists have been studying intriguing \u201cgravity holes,\u201d which are enormous depressions in the Earth\u2019s crust where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-493521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}