Is China’s giant dam affecting the Earth’s rotation? Some scientific evidence has also emerged regarding this.
According to scientists, the Three Gorges dam built on the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei province is affecting the rotation of the earth. This dam in China is the world’s largest dam and a large amount of electricity is also produced here.
It is also famous all over the world for its amazing engineering. It took two decades to build this dam and it was completed in 2012.
The Three Gorges Dam is 7660 feet long and 607 feet high. Thus, it is the largest dam in the world.
Despite all its advantages, the Three Gorges Dam has been in constant controversy. This dam has not only had a bad effect on the environment, but it has also become a cause of trouble socially. Due to the construction of the dam, crores of people had to be displaced here.
Apart from this, 632 square kilometers of land was flooded. This affected wildlife habitats and local ecosystems.
The Three Gorges Dam has the capacity to store 40 cubic kilometers of water, which can generate 22,500 megawatts of electricity. This meets the electricity needs of millions of people. Apart from generating electricity, this dam also controls floods and improves navigation of rivers. In this way it is an important part of China’s comprehensive economic and infrastructure strategy.
How does it affect the rotation of the earth?
Now let’s look at how the Three Gorges Dam is affecting the Earth’s rotation. Actually, questions have been raised about this for a long time. This topic first came up in a NASA post in 2005. According to Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, a geophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the dam’s huge reservoir has enough water to shift the distribution of Earth’s mass.
It is based on the principle of moment of inertia, which governs how the distribution of mass affects the rotational motion of an object.
Chao calculated that the dam’s reservoir could increase the length of a day by about 0.06 microseconds. In addition to slowing Earth’s rotation, the dam could also shift the planet’s position by about 2 centimeters (0.8 inches).
According to Chao, this is not much, but it is quite significant for man-made structures. Although these changes are like some moments in daily life, they show how human engineering can, in theory, affect planets.
Can a disaster affect the Earth’s rotation?
The belief that human activities can affect the Earth’s rotation is not new. In fact, NASA scientists have done research in this direction long ago.
According to this, the rotation of the earth can be affected by earthquakes. According to NASA’s research, this happened in the year 2004, when a massive earthquake and tsunami occurred in the Indian Ocean.
This devastating event had a massive impact on tectonic plates and shortened the length of a day by 2.68 microseconds. However, the impact of the Three Gorges Dam is much smaller than the earthquake.
Which event has how much impact on the length of the day?
,Three Gorges Dam: +0.06 microseconds
,2004 Indian Ocean earthquake: -2.68 microseconds
,Climate change (projected impact): gradual increase
What is the role of climate change
It’s not just human structures like the Three Gorges Dam that affect the Earth’s rotation. Climate change also plays a big role in shifting its mass.
Temperatures are rising around the world, ice is melting at the poles and sea levels are rising. This causes more water to accumulate near the equator. This change can also slow down the Earth’s rotation. According to NASA scientists, humans are also affecting the Earth’s rotation.
Will this have an impact on timing?
The biggest question is that if the speed of Earth’s rotation slows down, will it affect time? According to scientists, it will not make much difference to normal human life.
You may not even notice it in everyday life. But scientific instruments like atomic clocks may need to be reset.
At the same time, some scientists say that after a few decades, a minute may be reduced to just 59 seconds. Apart from this, the reduction in the length of the day can also affect GPS, satellites and financial transactions.
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