This Chinese Dam Is So Big It Altered The Earth's Rotation
Yahoo • • science
Key Points:
- The Three Gorges Dam in China, completed in 2006, holds around 44 billion tons of water and has caused a measurable slowdown in Earth's rotation by 0.06 microseconds due to the redistribution of mass.
- At 607 feet tall and nearly 1.5 miles wide, the dam generates 22,500 megawatts of hydroelectric power, impacting approximately 3.67 million relocated people and submerging 13 cities and over 1,300 villages.
- The dam's mass concentration alters Earth's inertia, causing a slight rotational slowdown and contributing to "true polar wander," shifting the planet's rotational axis by nearly a meter over recent decades.
- While natural events like major earthquakes have caused larger changes in Earth's rotation, the ongoing effects of the dam highlight the influence of large-scale human engineering on planetary geophysics.
- Despite these changes, the impact on Earth's rotation is minimal and not expected to cause catastrophic effects in the foreseeable future, though continued monitoring is advised.
