Nasa scientists have revealed the North Pole is slowly moving towards London because of environmental changes driven by global warming.
Experts said the way the Earth wobbles on its axis between the North and South Pole has changed because melting ice sheets, especially in Greenland, have altered the distribution of weight on the planet.
The axis had been recorded drifting in the direction of Hudson Bay in Canada since 1899 but took an unexpected shift towards the Greenwich meridian at the turn of the century.
The change in course was highlighted in a study published in Science Advances.
Dr Surendra Adhikari, a Nasa theoretical glaciologist, said: “It's no longer moving toward Hudson Bay, but instead toward the British Isles.
“The logic is very simple. When you see a positive gravity anomaly you are getting more mass in that region, and the only explanation for that is the movement of water on a huge scale.
“It's a significant sign of climate change, together with the global changes in sea level rise, and it's a good indicator of climate variability.”
Since 2003, Greenland has lost on average more than 600 trillion pounds of ice a year which has contributed to a shift in the Earth’s gravity.
Furthermore, West Antarctica loses 275 trillion pounds of ice while East Antarctica gains about 165 trillion pounds yearly to help tilt the axis.
Experts said the wobble is too small to notice for most, but does make a difference to GPS results, satellites and observatories.
