"The Earth's axis is regularly subjected to certain shifts, the permissible value of which at the pole is a circle with a diameter of about 10 meters. The earthquake in the Indian Ocean shifted the axis by a minute fraction - three centimeters. Nearly daily the Earth experiences such shifting. And so I consider that the latest earthquake and the shifted axis of rotation will have no impact on the climatic situation on our planet," the academic said.
Nikolayev pointed out that earthquakes of a similar force, in particular in Chile in 1960 with force 7.5 and in Alaska in 1964 with force 8.5, which also were responsible for the shifting of the Earth's axis, failed to have any effect on the climatic situation on the planet.
"One need not fear the consequences, since such a situation for this planet is ordinary," Nikolayev pointed out.
At present scientists from the Center for Space Geodesy under the Italian Space Agency, together with seismic specialists from other countries, are analyzing the shifting data to ascertain changes able radically to influence the life of the planet. In particular, they are looking into the possibility of the planet changing its center of gravity and the characteristics of its gravitational field.
The Earth's rotation axis is measured by the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS), located in Paris and employing regular observations of the planet's rotation from numerous stations and observatories.
The IERS is in charge of a unified system of coordinates and determines the Earth's position in space to solve geodetic, astronomical, and geophysical applied problems, and also to monitor the correlation between universal time, measured by the Earth's rotation, and atomic time, measured by the atomic clock.
Nikolayev said that Russia does not have its own specialized service for measuring the Earth's rotation, and Russian scientists make use of IERS data.
