Humanity has pumped so much water out of the Earth that mass displacement alone has deflected the planet’s rotation axis. the Geophysical Research LettersAccording to research published in
Based on climate models, Seoul University researchers estimate that we removed 2,150 gigatonnes of water from the Earth between 1993 and 2010, an amount that would raise sea levels by 6 millimeters.
The Earth’s rotation axis is in constant wandering, and the planet’s mass distribution and change have a say in this phenomenon. The movement really accelerated in the mid-1990s. The majority of the water pumped into agriculture is used for irrigation. Some of this water evaporates, some goes into the rivers, and in either case it ends up in the oceans, raising their level.
The Earth’s rotation axis changes frequently. Our study shows that in addition to climate-related causes, groundwater redistribution has the greatest impact on the axis
Ki-wyun Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul University, pointed this out.
The effect of water on Earth’s rotation was first shown in a 2016 study – here, for the first time, axis migration was compared to the movement of surface water, ice caps and glaciers. The new research based this on modeling, but the end result was a discrepancy of 78.5 cm, for which no natural explanation was found. The paradigm is only set in place by a water movement of 2,150 billion tons, which is attributed to a decade and a half of water management.
There is a problem at the equator
Due to the planet’s rotation, it doesn’t matter at what latitude we interfere with the movement of the water – the closer to the equator, the greater the effect. During the research period, the most dense water was extracted in drought-stricken regions of mid-latitudes, in the western part of North America and India.
The author of the 2016 study, Surendra Adhikari of NASA JPL, praised the work of the Korean scientists. He pointed out that the poles can move several meters per year, so the seasons will not change suddenly due to water extraction, but given the geographical time, human activity has a clear and tangible impact here.
The researchers are currently working on expanding their work to include an investigation on a historical scale.
Examining the corners of the Earth can be useful in learning about continent-sized water reserves. Data on the movement of angles in the xix. We’ve been recording since the 19th century, so we can see changes in water reserves going back a century. Has a hydrological change occurred due to a warming climate? The angular movement may provide an answer
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(IFL ScienceAnd SciTechDaily)
