Earth's Rotation Changed Completely Due to Giant Dam in China

The Earth’s rotation can apparently change. One of the triggers comes from a giant hydroelectric dam in China.

NASA had previously revealed something similar several years ago. At that time, it was stated that the earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 had an impact on the Earth’s rotation.

From these findings, it was discovered that a change in mass distribution across the Earth had a small effect on the planet’s moment of inertia.

IFLScience noted that this physics concept describes the degree of difficulty in rotating an object on a particular axis.

After the major earthquake struck the Indian Ocean in 2004, NASA scientists found a change in mass distribution that ultimately shortened the length of the day by 2.68 microseconds.

The shifting of a very large volume of water can also trigger a similar phenomenon based on the same theory. This occurs as a result of the impoundment of 40 cubic kilometres of water in the Three Gorges Dam, China, according to geophysicist Benjamin Fong Chao of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Chao’s calculations show that the length of the day can increase by 0.06 microseconds due to the change in mass position, as well as a shift in the Earth’s pole of up to 2 cm.

For information, the dam is located in Hubei Province and stretches across the middle section of the Yangtze River. The three gorges in question are Qutang, Wu, and Xiling.

This dam functions to turn turbines to generate electrical energy.