Earth's Rotation Changes Drastically Due to China, NASA Responds
A shocking fact has been revealed by global scientists: the Earth’s rotation is experiencing a significant shift and change in speed. Interestingly, this planetary-scale geological phenomenon is attributed to human activity in one country, namely China.
The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has provided a scientific explanation behind these startling claims. Based on satellite data and physical calculations, this phenomenon is closely linked to the massive infrastructure project in the ‘Celestial Empire’, the Three Gorges Dam.
How can a dam in a single country affect the movement of planet Earth?
‘Angular Momentum’ Effect from 40 Billion Tonnes of Water
The Three Gorges Dam, which impounds the Yangtze River in Hubei Province, China, is no ordinary dam. It is the world’s largest hydroelectric power station. When fully operational, this giant dam can hold a water volume of up to 40 cubic kilometres, equivalent to 40 billion tonnes of water, according to Benjamin Fong Chao, a geophysicist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, as cited by IFL Science.
NASA scientists explain that the collection of such an enormous mass of water at one specific point has triggered a shift in the Earth’s mass distribution. In physics, this phenomenon affects what is known as ‘Angular Momentum’.
When the dam is filled, the concentration of water mass at a height of 175 metres above sea level shifts the distribution of our planet’s mass relative to its axis, according to NASA scientists. Simply put, this phenomenon is similar to an ice skater spinning. When a skater extends their arms away from their body, their rotation slows down. Conversely, when their arms are pulled closer to the body, the rotation speeds up.
In China’s case, the movement and concentration of billions of tonnes of water into the massive dam has moved the water mass further from the Earth’s core. As a result, the Earth’s rotational speed has slowed.
Real Impact on World Time and Earth’s Axis
Based on mathematical calculations released by NASA, the impact of the Three Gorges Dam does not cause the Earth to stop spinning extremely, but scientifically, the changes are very real:
Lengthening of the Day: The Earth’s rotation has slowed, causing the duration of one day to increase by approximately 0.06 microseconds (one millionth of a second).
Shift in Earth’s Axis: The position of the poles or the Earth’s axis is reported to have shifted by about 2 centimetres from its normal position.
Change in Earth’s Shape: The Earth has become slightly rounder at the equator and flatter at the poles due to the redistribution of water mass.
Although microsecond figures sound extremely small and imperceptible in daily human life, for astronomers and navigation scientists, even the smallest change in Earth’s rotation is crucial. This shift affects the accuracy of global atomic clocks and the Global Positioning System (GPS) used across the planet.
Experts emphasise that this phenomenon serves as the first concrete evidence in modern history that human-led infrastructure engineering activities have become massive enough to alter the physical characteristics of the planet we inhabit.