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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Analysis of astronomical observations recorded during the last 75 years by international services (ILS-IPMS, BIH) in charge of providing the coordinates of the instantaneous pole conclusively proves a persistent drift of the “mean pole” (≡barycenter of the wobble). A study was undertaken with the specific objective of investigating the possibility of a true secular motion of the barycenter, that is, an actual displacement of the Earth's pole of figure. Geophysical hypotheses available to explain the astronomically-observed drift of the “mean pole” suggest changes in the Earth's second-order inertia tensor as a plausible cause.