Have any geologists published theories that the Earth's poles may have shifted at the end of the last iceage?

Question

This link leads to a picture on Wikipedia that shows the extent of the glaciation during the most recent ice age.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Northern_icesheet_hg.png

According to that picture, there was a heck of a lot of ice on North America, but not nearly as much on eastern Siberia. It seems odd to me that eastern Siberia wouldn't have glaciers since Siberia is generally very cold.

From the distribution of ice shown in the picture, it looks like the North Pole may have been closer to Baffin Island back then, (Baffin Island is the big island to the west of Greenland).

Has anyone ever heard of any geologists proposing a theory like this?

Research using GPS, conducted by Geoffrey Blewitt of the University of Nevada, has shown that normal seasonal changes in the distribution of ice and water cause minor movements of the poles.

I wasn't referring to the magnetic field "north pole", I was referring to the axis of rotation "north pole". However, the elevation and precipitation reasoning makes sense in relation to the extent of glaciation.

Answer 1

Interesting theory but Daniel C is right: the position of the magnetic North pole does not have any bearing on the rotational axis of the earth relative to the sun. The magnetic pole actually has wandered around the globe and has even reversed completely (so that a compass would have pointed towards the geographic South Pole) many times throughout geologic history. In fact, magnetic North is located in northern Canada now, NOT at the North Pole (a lot of people don't understand this.) And there are some scientists who think we may be headed for another polar reversal.

The Earth does wobble in it's orbit AND the continents have migrated around the globe due to plate tectonics but these occurred over hundreds of millions of years. The most recent ice ages were within way too short of a time frame (10,000 to 50,000 years) for any of those factors to have centered Baffin Island on the rotational Pole.

Some of the glaciation in North America spread out from higher elevations (mountain ranges) which are not present in the Siberian landforms. It is also likely that there was much less volume of snowfall in Asia due to patterns of air mass movement and oceanic temperatures. There are a huge number of climate variables that effect the growth and subsidence of sea and glacial ice -- Daniel C touched on most of the major ones.

Answer 2

Something strange has been going on under our feet for the past four years. Earth’s gravity field suddenly shifted gears and began getting flatter, reversing a course of centuries during which the planet and its gravity field grew rounder each year.
THE SCIENTISTS who noticed the change and report it in Friday’s issue of the journal Science suspect Earth itself may be flattening out, with the oceans rising near the equator, but they aren’t sure. What they do know is that Earth has never been round. It has always bulged at the equator and is about 0.3 percent fatter there, partly a result of the planet’s rotation. GETTING ROUNDER

Yet ever since the last Ice Age, the planet has been getting rounder as ground beneath the polar regions, relieved of the weight from ice that was miles thick in places, has been rebounding. In some parts of Scandinavia and Canada, the ground rises a quarter-inch (a centimeter) per year. Since the late 1970s, satellite measurements have shown that this post-glacial rebound, as it is called, generates a corresponding rounding of Earth’s gravity field. Suddenly the trend has reversed.

“Sometime around 1998, something began to make the Earth’s gravity field flatter,” says Christopher Cox of Raytheon Information Technology and Scientific Services. “The result is it looks as if post-glacial rebound has reversed itself. But we do not have any reason to think that post-glacial rebound has in any way stopped or changed.” In effect, Cox said in an interview, while post-glacial rebound continues to make the Earth rounder, some movement of mass on the surface of Earth must be making the gravity field flatter. It’s not a change anyone could notice; it’s only revealed by sensitive satellite measurements. The shift, however, is significant.

“The effect is twice as large as post-glacial rebound in terms of effect on the gravity field, and it’s in the opposite direction,” Cox said. “Whatever it is, it’s big.” LIKE A RUBBER BALL

Answer 3

According to many textbooks, the earth's poles do occasionally change, the last time it happened is about a few hundred thousand years ago. evidence is at the bottom of the ocean. when lava erupts under the ocean from the mid ocean ridge, the bits of iron line up with the poles, when the poles change, the bits of iron line up to a different direction.
during the ice age, most of the world was covered with ice, so it's not surprising that theres ice in north america. Actually there's still ice in north america now.

Answer 4

The earth's axis of rotation cannot change unless there is some very large torque acting on it (which there isn't). The continents do move (as tectonic plates) but they move so slowly that they were not in a very different position at the last ice age.

Climate and glaciation depend on ocean currents, global winds, rainfall and surface albedo -- the explanation for the pattern you see is much more likely to be found in these variables.

Answer 5

The last pole shift is believed to have taken place about 125 thousand years ago. According to core samples taken from magnitie.

Answer 6

Archaeologists and paleontologists have found evidence of many reversals in the magnetic poles in charcoal of ancient fires.
The movement of magnetic poles ( other than reversals) is due to gyroscopic progression. Spin a top and watch it, you will see it wobbling slightly around its axis.