A reader asked an interesting question, "Does the circumference of the Earth grow each year due to soil, leaves decomposing, etc.?" How would you reply? Post your "comments" below...
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The circumference of the Earth does not expand because the earth is what is known as a system. This system is able to maintain itself in equlibrum (in balance) if it is not tampered with too much by humans. The earths system only has a limited amount of natural resources. Natural resources include soil, plants, water, air as well as all the animals.
As new soil is being formed, by weathering process(rocks turning into soil) , so too is soil being washed away by rivers and incorrect land uses. All the washed away soil then ends up in the ocean. Further processes take place causing mountains to rise and the bedrock begins form soil and the whole process of the soil washing into the ocean starts again.
The decomposition of leaves is another example of how the earth is able to maintain the system. All plant matter is made up of Carbon. When a plant decomposes the carbon is released back to the earth. However just as plants die and decompose so too do they grow. This then means that the carbon from the decomposing plants is taken up, as food in the form of compost, by the new plants so that they can grow.
Therefor, there is not a large enough layer of soil or decomposing matter to make the earths circumference ‘grow’.
I am thinking that the Earth’s circumference is based on mathematical calculations and only through further calculation could we know if there are changes. I would think that what occurs on the surface of the earth is constant (as the writer above put it so well) and doesn’t factor into the base figure of Earth’s circumference. The question by the reader is a very good one, though! Perhaps scientists should recalculate the circumference of the Earth every 12 months to find out if this could be true.
How do we account for all the tons of cosmic dust that settles on the Earth each year? Are we really a closed system?
Gravity is a serious matter. Earth’s gravity is not constant nor is it uniform. GPS satellites are constantly being updated to correct for gravity anomalies. Does a high pressure air mass moving over a continent push the land surface down, thus altering the diameter of the earth?
Do we have the tools to measure the diameter of the earth with sufficient accuracy and precision to detect “instantaneous” changes.
We can measure tidal height of water. Do the sun and moon cause similar tidal bulges in “solid” land?
In addition to the tons of cosmic dust, what about the energy that is converted to matter? Plants capture the energy of the sun. Is there an increase in mass? Or is there a similar release of energy in the system to maintain a constant mass? Is there a continual cycle of mass to energy to mass? Or are there singularities where mass predominates is one location and energy predominates in another.
The sun converts tons of mass to energy every second. Some of that energy must be converting back into matter somewhere.
It’s not even clear the me what would be the definition of the circumference of the earth, or what precisely we would set out to measure. The surface of the earch is quite irregular, with many mountains and valleys. Is the circumference the length of some imaginary line around the equator at an agreed-upon sea level (or some other level), or does it really include measurement of the actual surface, including all the mountain peaks? Who gets to define which of these (or some other) is meant by “earth’s circumference”?
The earth’s ‘circumference’ is measured by taking the circumference of our planet (which is always done at the equator if the planet has one) at the average height of the distances from the earth’s center to the surface. Notice the word ‘average’ Jerry Yochelson. The rest of you, stop worrying about if decomposition increases the circumference and worry about how much the circumference changes due to plate tectonics.
WHAT ABOUT MINING AND THE HOLLOWING OUT OF THE PLANET WITH SOIL BEING BROUGHT TO THE SURFACE. WOULD THAT NOT INCREASE YOUR AVERAGE CICUMFERANCE?