the bulge around the earth

in 1998 two scientists in goddard realized that the satellite images they were getting back couldn't possibly be right. so they worked at it for three years and yep the earth, which had been getting real round up until 1998 had started to flatten out. the pictures are interesting to look at, however you will need to look up cox and chao, goddards space center, earth's bulge. it was one on the top 100 science stories of the year, what no one got except the governement and the scientists is that for a bulge of water at the equator to be noticeable has to be a pretty big bulge. no word has been issued since, however, they sure as heck sent up the satellites after that. according to cox and chao, the earth's mass had to be moving, in unimaginable force and pressure to have done that so fast. it now has become a national security concern, because we are a big top spinning in space and a large bulge of water at the equator cutting loose can cause an earthcrust displacement which will make the tsunami last year look like a wlk in the park.

Have any links ( i'm a little lazy to search )
I'd like to see picts of this
would be nice to say " I told you the earth was flat!" ( many years from now though )

Wow, it looks like linni is right.


Cut and paste cox and chao, goddard space center, earth's bulge into Google

I have not had time to read the results fully, but judging by the article previews, and links it looks correct.

Gosh, I really have to stop reading these things. But anyway:

In 2002 NASA also launched the GRACE and JASON missions, missions that will help to more precisely track these sorts of changes in Earth?s geodesy, and will launch the ICESAT mission this winter.

An article on this NASA-funded study appears in the August 2 issue of the journal Science.

So what happened? It's been 3 years. Can anyone find updates on this?