Abstract
Transient flow in the mantle, induced by glacial cycles, produce small but discernible variations in the Earth’s rotational wobble and in the length of the day. These geophysical observables, which arise solely as a consequence of strain fields endowed with low order spherical harmonics (ℓ = 0 and ℓ = 2), can be usefel in distinguishing the viscosity structure of the lower mantle, potentially more so than inferences drawn from relative sea level and gravity anomaly data, whose spectral contents are dominated by much higher angular orders (ℓ ≳ 6). Results from dynamical calculations, which are constraint to fit both the speed of recent polar wander and the non-tidal acceleration of the Earth’s rotation rate, suggest that some amount of shrinkage of the Antarctic ice sheet since the late Wisconsin has occurred and that disintegration of Arctic marine ice sheets in the past may be a distinct possibility.
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Sabadini, R., Boschi, E., Yuen, D.A. (1982). Secular Trends in Polar Motions: A New Tool for Probing the Viscosity of the Lower Mantle. In: Coradini, A., Fulchignoni, M. (eds) The Comparative Study of the Planets. NATO Advanced Study Institutes Series, vol 85. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7810-2_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7810-2_15
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