Earth Sciences Desk
Earth Files Change-of-Address Notice, Told Move Is Too Small to Count
The planet's center shifts by millimetres as water moves with the seasons, a relocation too small for the form and too large for satellites to ignore.
Figure disputed; current value remains in force. Distances are measured from the place Earth would be if its water agreed to remain still.
The International Address Standards Council has rejected Earth's annual change-of-address notice after determining that the planet moves too little to qualify as having moved, while also moving too much for the notice to be considered accurate.
NASA scientists measure Earth's center of mass shifting by millimetres as oceans, air, snow, ice and groundwater redistribute through the year. The center moves roughly three millimetres toward the North Pole when northern snow peaks in March, then about 2.2 millimetres toward South America as the Amazon basin fills in April.
The council's Form 1-A accepts distances in miles, kilometres or whole inches. Earth's filing therefore records its move as 0.00 miles. An automated review rejected the form because the old and new addresses were identical, then advised the planet to remain where it was until it had gone somewhere else.
“The planet has not moved in the ordinary sense,” a council memorandum states. “Its contents have shifted and taken the address with them.” The memorandum classifies the event as internal relocation, a category normally used when a government department changes floors without changing buildings.
Navigation agencies objected that the distinction is not useful to satellites, which orbit the center of mass rather than the center printed on the form. Shipping, mapping and precision agriculture also depend on the moving reference point. The council replied that these services may continue using the correct location provided they do not describe it as an address.
A separate filing will be required between August and October, when meltwater and rain draw the center toward the South Pacific. The council has proposed a twelve-month forwarding schedule, but its system permits only one future address and rejects coordinates containing more than two decimal places.
Surveyors have advised property owners that boundaries remain unchanged, although every boundary is seasonally elsewhere by an amount too small to observe without equipment and large enough to require the equipment to be recalibrated. No title insurance policy reviewed by this paper contains a clause for planetary sloshing.
The council will keep Earth's former address active as a seasonal annex. Mail delivery is not expected to be affected. The planet's next review is scheduled for April, depending on rain.
Update. Supporting paperwork. NASA really is tracking the seasonal motion of Earth's center of mass to millimetre precision. Read the factual report.