On Gravity and the Great Uplift

July 5th, 2008 · No Comments · 2008 A Slight Shift of Gravity

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We’re creating a contour “map” of a landscape that references the Åland Archipelago that stretches between Finland and Sweden in the Baltic Sea. Like all of Finland, the archipelago is in the midst of “The Great Uplift” – a post-glacial rebound where land masses that were depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period are rising due to ice melt.

“According to the isostatic theory, land uplift reduces gravity. In Finland the connection between land uplift and gravity has been studied with high precision gravity measurements over the past 18 years. The results show that, although there are significant variations in gravity, the variations are not linear with the time but rather periodic ones.” -from “Finnish measurements of the Fennoscandian land uplift gravity lines in Finland 1966-1984,” by A. Kiviniemi of the Geodetic Inst., Helsinki [link].

Because of global climate change, the low-lying archipelago is in a neck-and-neck race where the sea levels are rising at nearly the same rate as the land itself is rising, due being released from the weight of the melted glacial ice [link].

Category: 2008 A Slight Shift of Gravity

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