Scientists from Brazil and the U.S. think so. In a surprising discovery, they've found that a GPS station in Manaus, near the center of the Amazon River basin, showed that the Earth level was going up and down by almost 3 inches (75 mm) every year with the seasonal floods of the big river. In other words, Earth sinks three inches under weight of flooded Amazon. So far, this study has only used GPS data, but a new mission using satellites is under preparation. Proving that the Earth is elastic is only one aspect of this project. The researchers also want to estimate more precisely what is the total amount of water on Earth, which to my surprise, is today completely unknown. But it would "greatly improve our ability to predict drought, flooding and climate change," according to the scientists. Read more...
Sources: Ohio State University news release, via EurekAlert!, October 4, 2005; and various web sites
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