"It is estimated that since 1980, the poles' positions have moved about 4 meters (13 feet)." BY ANDERS ANGLESEY via NewsWeek Headline Image Credit: NASA Climate change has contributed to the shifting of Earth's axis of rotation, according to new research. Earth's geographic north and south poles—where the planet's axis of rotation intersects with its surface—are not fixed. Changes in where the Earth's mass is distributed can cause the axis, and the poles, to move. Melting glaciers caused a significant amount of water to shift, which scientists have now said helped the locations of the poles accelerate eastward. It is estimated that since 1980, the poles' positions have moved about 4 meters (13 feet). Melting glaciers accounted for most of the shift observed since the 1990s, the peer-reviewed study published in Geophysical Research Letters (the American Geophysical Union's journal) said. Pumping groundwater from beneath land had a lesser impact, it added. Natural factors, such as ocean