(Image source from: qualitywaterservices.com)

The earth's crust is moving due to the climatic changes on the ice sheets and the glaciers across the globe. The continuous melting of the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland is making the crust deform as water. This water is redistributed to the oceans of the globe and it is leading to the rise of the sea levels all over. The movement in the earth's crust is due to the sudden loss of weight on the earth's surface as a massive amount of ice got melted. It made the earth's crust move vertically and horizontally. The scientists revealed that the vertical movement changes as the land lift up and the horizontal movement is tracked for the first time.

The study has been published in the journal 'Geophysical Research Letters'. The study told that the surface motion is several tenths of a millimeter per year and it changes every year. It all depends on the mass between the continents and the oceans that make the crust move. The researchers gathered the satellite data on the ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica. The melting of ice in the countries has been tracked between 2003 and 2018. The ice loss produces pervasive horizontal motions with a magnitude of 0.15 millimeters per year. The crust of the earth extends up to 40 kilometers under the surface and the crust is made of solid rocks, minerals.

The crust is also made of sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. With some vast changes in the climate, there is rapid ice loss and the glaciers are losing 31 percent more snow and ice every year. India too will be impacted because of this and 12 cities are under threat. They are expected to be under the water by the end of this century.

By Siva Kumar