Humans pumping water may change Earth’s spin

HUMANS USE A LOT OF WATER. WE ALSO LIKE TO LIVE AND GROW CROPS IN AREAS THAT DON’T SEE A LOT OF RAINFALL. SO, WE HAVE TO PUMP IT FROM THE GROUND. NEW RESEARCH PURPORTS TO SHOW HUMANS ARE PUMPING SO MUCH GROUNDWATER WE’VE ACTUALLY CHANGED THE WAY THE EARTH SPINS ON ITS AXIS, A POINT CALLED THE ROTATIONAL POLE.

SCIENTISTS AT SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY RECENTLY PUBLISHED A STUDY ON THE SUBJECT. LOOKING AT THE TIME PERIOD BETWEEN 1993 AND 2010, THEY FOUND HUMANS PUMPED 2,150 GIGATONS OF GROUNDWATER. THAT DISPLACED WATER EVENTUALLY FOUND ITS WAY TO SURFACE OCEANS, SEAS, AND LAKES CONTRIBUTING, THEY SAY, TO A GLOBAL SEA LEVEL RISE OF ABOUT A QUARTER OF AN INCH.

THROUGH COMPUTER MODELING, THE SCIENTISTS FOUND ADDING THAT MUCH WATER TO THE SURFACE CAUSED THE EARTH TO TILT 31 AND A HALF INCHES TO THE EAST BETWEEN 1993 AND 2010, A PROCESS CALLED POLAR DRIFT. THINK OF IT LIKE A WASHING MACHINE AND THERE ARE TOO MANY TOWELS ON ONE SIDE. WHEN HUMANS REDISTRIBUTED THE WATER, EARTH STARTED TO SPIN DIFFERENTLY.

NOW, SCIENTISTS HAVE KNOWN FOR SOME TIME THE EARTH’S ROTATIONAL POLE MOVES AROUND, UP TO SEVERAL METERS A YEAR. SO, THE STUDY ON GROUNDWATER PUMPING MAY EXPLAIN SOME OF THAT SHIFTING AND SHOWS HOW HUMANS COULD BE IMPACTING SEA LEVELS.

AT PRESENT, IT DOESN’T APPEAR POLAR DRIFT CAUSED BY PUMPING GROUNDWATER IS IMPACTING THE WEATHER OR CHANGING SEASONS, BUT OVER A GEOLOGICAL TIMETABLE, IT COULD IMPACT THE PLANET’S CLIMATE.

THE STUDY LINKING WATER DISTRIBUTION TO POLAR DRIFT MARKS THE LATEST DISCOVERY IN WHAT’S BEEN A BANNER YEAR FOR EARTH SCIENCES. IN JANUARY, RESEARCHERS IN CHINA PUT FORTH A THEORY SUGGESTING THE EARTH’S INNER CORE WAS SLOWING DOWN AND POSSIBLY REVERSING. IN APRIL, A TEAM OF ALABAMA RESEARCHERS WORKING IN ANTARCTICA FOUND EVIDENCE A THIN BUT DENSE LAYER OF ANCIENT OCEAN FLOOR SEPARATED THE EARTH’S OUTER CORE FROM ITS CRUST.

OF COURSE, TO KNOW YOURSELF BETTER, SOMETIMES IT’S BEST TO GET AN OUTSIDE OPINION. THAT’S WHY NASA’S MISSION TO PSYCHE, OR WHAT’S BEEN DUBBED THE ‘GOLDEN ASTEROID,’ IS BACK ON THE LAUNCH SCHEDULE FOR OCTOBER. PSYCHE IS BELIEVED TO BE AN UNUSED PLANETARY CORE, SO STUDYING IT WILL LIKELY TELL US MORE ABOUT OUR OWN BLUE SPHERE.

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