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Ontario is home to a weird gravity anomaly where things weigh less - blogTO

blogto.com

A patch of Ontario where things literally weigh less has two rival explanations — and scientists still can't agree which one is right.

Isostatic ReboundMantle ConvectionGeneral RelativityPlate Tectonics
Ontario is home to a weird gravity anomaly where things weigh less - blogTO

Theory Briefing

  • The Hudson Bay area has a measurable gravity anomaly where objects weigh slightly less than they should anywhere else in Canada.
  • One theory traces the anomaly to the last Ice Age, when massive glaciers depressed the Earth's crust and it hasn't fully rebounded yet.
  • A second theory points to slow churning movements deep in Earth's mantle pulling mass away from the surface beneath the region.
  • The two explanations aren't mutually exclusive — some researchers think both forces are acting together to reduce gravity there.