There’s a very bizarre thing that’s happening in Australia and they have formed a body to fix it.
Australia is on the move! Yes, you’ve read that right; Australia is moving.
In fact, it annually moves 7cm north because of tectonic movements. Since the Geocentric Datum of Australia (the country’s local co-ordinate system) was last updated in 1994, this movement has accumulated in more than 1.5m in distance. Hence, local coordinates and the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) now differ by more than 1.5m. Here’s how Dan Jaksa of Geoscience Australia explains this weird phenomenon: (the article continues after the ad)
“If the lines are fixed, you can put a mark in the ground, measure its co-ordinate, and it will be the same co-ordinate in 20 years,” explained Dan Jaksa. “It’s the classical way of doing it. Not in this case though. Because of the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates, the local co-ordinates drift apart from the Earth’s global co-ordinates over time and this creates big problems especially in an era where we want to start using driverless cars.”
To compensate, on January 1st 2017, Australia will shift its local co-ordinates further north – by 1.8m. This correction means that Australia’s local co-ordinates and the Earth’s global co-ordinates will align in 2020.
Problem fixed.
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: What’s Wrong With The Hudson Bay Area Of Canada?
Photo: Creative Commons
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