Scientist Discovers Why Earth Wobbles

Geoff Blewitt, a geophysicist at the University of Nevada, Reno, has figured out why the Earth wobbles on its axis as it rotates. Blewitt and his colleagues have been using GPS technology to track the movement of water as it cycles from polar regions to the oceans and into the atmosphere. "We actually observe bulges in the Earth's shape directly and relate it to the wobble," Blewitt said.

"Recent advancements in the technology of GPS along with simple lessons from nature have allowed us to finally understand the reason for the wobbling," he said. Speaking to a stunned crowd of geophysicists at an international science conference in Montreal, Blewitt explained how he and his wife had been babysitting his nephew Danny, age 6, when Danny started spinning around, not stopping until he became dizzy and finally fell over. "He began to rock back and forth before losing his balance altogether. And that's when it dawned on me, the Earth... is the same." Blewitt then presented data showing that the Earth has been spinning for several billion years already and has become "quite dizzy." The real danger, according to Blewitt, will come when the Earth "falls down like my nephew did. Danny fell and scraped his elbow, but the Earth has no elbows. So it will probably be worse for the Earth."