Mar 11, 2024
The Indian Ocean Has the World’s Largest Gravity ‘Black Hole’ and It’s Finally Explained
Posted by Chris Smedley in category: cosmology
Due to the world’s largest gravity hole, the sea level in a large part of the Indian Ocean is up to 106 m (348 ft) lower than the rest of the world. We have just understood what causes this huge ‘black hole.’
If you look at a map of Earth’s gravity, you will see a huge blue spot south of India, indicating a region where gravity is weaker than average. This spot is called the Indian Ocean Geoid Low (IOGL), and it is the largest gravity anomaly on our planet.
A gravity anomaly is a difference between the actual gravity measured at a location and the theoretical gravity expected for a perfectly smooth and spherical Earth. But Earth’s gravity isn’t perfectly uniform and variations in mass distribution beneath the surface cause fluctuations in gravitational pull.