Three Gorges Dam: Is China’s giant dam affecting the Earth’s rotation? Some scientific evidence has also emerged regarding this. NASA scientists have said many things about this.
Three Gorges Dam: Is China’s giant dam affecting the Earth’s rotation? Some scientific evidence has also come to light regarding this. According to scientists, this dam named Three Gorges built on the Yangtze River in Hubei province of China is affecting the Earth’s rotation. This dam of China is the world’s largest dam and electricity is also produced here on a large scale. It is also famous all over the world for its excellent 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. In this way, it is the world’s largest dam.
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 social trouble. Due to the construction of the dam, crores of people had to be displaced. Apart from this, 632 square kilometers of land came under the grip of flood. 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 come to 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 the year 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 Earth’s mass distribution. This 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 extend 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). That’s not much, but it’s significant for a man-made structure, Chao said. Although these changes are moments in daily life, they show how human engineering could, 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, earthquakes can affect the Earth’s rotation. According to NASA’s research, this happened in the year 2004, when a massive earthquake and tsunami occurred in the Indian Ocean. Due to this devastating incident, tectonic plates were affected on a large scale and the length of a day was reduced by 2.68 microseconds. However, the effect 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 is not only 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 rotation of the earth slows down, will it affect time? According to scientists, it will not affect the normal human life much. You may not even notice it in your daily 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.
