Canadians are lightweights - if you know what I mean

[ashling]

Canada's odd low gravity a relic of the ice age


CALGARY -- For years, scientists have known that compared with the rest of the world, Canada is a low-gravity area - although nowhere close to the zero-G phenomenon of space travel - but now, researchers have discovered that this country's peculiar gravitational field is even more pronounced in two northerly regions.

While most of this country was blanketed by 3.2 kilometres of ice and snow 20,000 years ago (which is more than likely the culprit for Canada's overall low pull of gravity), two areas on either side of Hudson Bay, each covering land up to half the size of Quebec, were buried under an additional 500 metres of ancient ice.

Using satellites to measure minute variations in the Earth's gravity, researchers have mapped out what Canada's topography looked like underneath the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which vanished 10,000 years ago.

The two northern pieces of real estate have not rebounded from years of being weighed down by so much ice, according to a report in today's issue of the Journal Science. If the compressed ground were to return to its pre-ice-age levels, the gravity would return to the levels in the rest of Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070511.GRAVITY11/TPStory/Environment

[Orsino]

1. Well, heck. I'm gonna do a Grouse Grind, then.

Oughta be easy.