Australia is not quite where you think it is.
Australia is not quite where you think it is. The continent has shifted by 4.9 feet since the last adjustment was made to GPS coordinates in 1994, reports the New York Times.
All of the Earth’s continents float on tectonic plates, which glide slowly over a plastic-like layer of the upper mantle. And the plate that Australia sits on has been moving relatively fast, about 2.7 inches a year (northward and with a slight clockwise rotation).
In contrast, the North American plate has been moving roughly one inch a year, though the Pacific plate moves three to four inches a year.
The result is that “some countries are more stationary than others,” says Damien Saunder, the director of cartography for National Geographic. “When there is a significant shift in land masses over time we need to revise the models of the Earth from which GPS coordinates are calculated, so for example your neighbor doesn't end up with your old coordinates." (See how Alaska has finally been mapped as well as Mars.)
Read more at National Geographic
Photo Credit: WikiImages via Pixabay
