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Glacial Isostatic Adjustment, Earth Rotation and Climate Change: how does it all fit together?

The Earth’s rotation exhibits variability on various timescales, which is most usefully expressed in terms of variations of the rate of planetary rotation about its instantaneous axis, and in terms of the wobble of the spin axis with respect to the fixed surface. On millennial timescales, the lasting influence of the late Pleistocene cycle of glaciations on the Earth’s rotational state is well documented. In this talk, I will first give an overview of the glacial isostatic adjustment theory, and then present recent progress made in understanding how climate change might have an impact on the observed rotational state of the planet.