Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
While Everest is Earth's highest elevation (green) and Mauna Kea is tallest from its base (orange), Cayambe is farthest from Earth's axis (pink) and Chimborazo is farthest from Earth's centre (blue). Not to scale. The peak of the Cayambe volcano is the point of Earth's surface farthest from its axis; thus, it rotates the fastest as Earth spins ...
Clairaut's theorem characterizes the surface gravity on a viscous rotating ellipsoid in hydrostatic equilibrium under the action of its gravitational field and centrifugal force. It was published in 1743 by Alexis Claude Clairaut in a treatise [1] which synthesized physical and geodetic evidence that the Earth is an oblate rotational ellipsoid.
To a large extent, Earth's shape is the result of rotation, which causes its equatorial bulge, and the competition of geological processes such as the collision of plates, as well as of volcanism, resisted by Earth's gravitational field. This applies to the solid surface, the liquid surface (dynamic sea surface topography), and Earth's atmosphere.
For example, the Earth's mean specific gravity (5.515) is far higher than the typical specific gravity of rocks at the surface (2.7–3.3), implying that the deeper material is denser. This is also implied by its low moment of inertia ( 0.33 M R 2 , compared to 0.4 M R 2 for a sphere of constant density).
Definition of the parametric latitude (β) on the ellipsoid. The parametric latitude or reduced latitude, β, is defined by the radius drawn from the centre of the ellipsoid to that point Q on the surrounding sphere (of radius a) which is the projection parallel to the Earth's axis of a point P on the ellipsoid at latitude ϕ.
Relative to Earth's surface, the geographic poles move by a few metres over periods of a few years. [3] This is a combination of Chandler wobble , a free oscillation with a period of about 433 days; an annual motion responding to seasonal movements of air and water masses; and an irregular drift towards the 80th west meridian . [ 4 ]
By the 1940s, magnetic north had moved northwest from its 1831 position by about 250 miles (400 kilometers). In 1948, it reached Prince Wales Island, and by 2000 it had departed Canadian shores.
The Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system (acronym ECEF), also known as the geocentric coordinate system, is a cartesian spatial reference system that represents locations in the vicinity of the Earth (including its surface, interior, atmosphere, and surrounding outer space) as X, Y, and Z measurements from its center of mass.