
Australia Is Drifting So Fast GPS Can't Keep Up - wanderer42
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/australia-moves-gps-coordinates-adjusted-continental-drift/
======
jjp
Try the previous discussion for more details -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12188144](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12188144)

------
sigmar
>Corrections have been made to its latitude and longitude four times over the
past 50 years, the Times reports. The last adjustment there, in 1994, was
about 656 feet.

>The next adjustment is said to be due by the end of this year, on the order
of 4.9 feet.

I don't understand. It moved 4.9 ft since 1994, but was moving more quickly
before then? The NYTimes article doesn't seem to clarify this either. Were
pre-1994 commercially available maps not based on satellite readings of
lat/long?

~~~
teh_klev
Both the National Geographic article (linked above) and the NYT articles
(linked in the Nat Geo) article are fairly low quality. No references or
citations. Not up to HN's usual front page quality standard.

~~~
superplussed
Also, the animation over-dramatises what is happening and makes it look like
Australia is going to slam into Papua New Guinea soon. That's just.. bizarre.

~~~
goldfeld
Why? I think you'd see some earthquake or cresting of terrain when/if it two
landmasses slowly but violently merge over years, but I wouldn't know.

~~~
Retric
First the plate is what's moving not just the landmass. Second it's moving
really slowly. They are showing something like a million years of motion, and
it's in the wrong direction.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Plate](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Plate)

------
v768
Reading this article is quite painful due to all the measurements given only
in feet & inches, why not give the data in both systems of measurement? Only 3
countries in the world have not adopted the metric system (Australia did) and
this is about GPS and worldwide measurements. Not even NASA uses the imperial
units anymore.

