Artificially, the rotation of the earth is also influenced by climate change since it has an impact on the distribution of terrestrial masses.
Always higher, and always more massive
Burj Khalifa, Shanghai tower or The Clock Towers: it seems that the characteristic of man is to build ever more luxurious, ever higher, always more futuristic infrastructure … And always heavier, at least it is for the barrage of the three Gorges de China, the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.
It is located in the province of Hubei, in the center of China, and commissioned in stages between 2003 and 2012. Almost eighteen years of work were necessary. According to the National Center for Spatial Studies (CNES), it fulfills three objectives: “ Impressing by asserting by its gigantism the new Chinese power, mastering a dangerous river by producing electricity that the country so much needs for its development and, finally, rebalance the dynamics of the territory by valuing the interior facing the coast ».
The largest hydroelectric dam in the world
Still according to the CNES, China is in 2020 the first producer of hydroelectricity, in terms of power as well as production. However, despite promises and ambitions, it only covers 3% of the country's needs, not 10%. However, it may well have a very particular and unexpected role on the scale of the entire planet, namely to slow down the rotation of the earth.
It is an article dating from 2005 and published by NASA which proposes this theory, showing that the earthquake and the 2004 tsunami affected the rotation of the planet themselves. “” “Any world event involving a mass movement affects the rotation of the earth, from the seasonal weather to driving “a car”, explained Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, of Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA in Greenbelt, Maryland.
0.06 microseconde
To simplify things, Iflscience takes the example of an ice skater, which increases the speed and power of his rotation by modifying the placement of his arms around his body. Typically, the 2004 earthquake moved the seismic structure of the earth and reduced the duration of a day by 2.68 microseconds!
If the large tank of the three China gorges was filled, then it would contain 40 cubic kilometers (10 trillions of gallons) of water. According to the article, “This mass displacement would increase the duration of the day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the land barely more round in the middle and flat at the top ”.
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