A map of Earth’s gravity. Blue shows lower regions and red higher. ESA/HPF/DLR
The area of Earth with the lowest relative gravity is located just south of India in the Indian Ocean. This gravity “hole” may be due to low-density plumes of magma disturbed by the sinking slabs of a former tectonic plate.
Neither Earth nor its gravitational field are a perfect sphere. Because gravity is proportional to mass, the shape of the planet’s gravitational field depends on the distribution of mass within it. One way of representing this field is…
