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Thursday, June 29th, 2023

Humans are pumping out so much groundwater that it’s changing Earth’s tilt

Author:     Tereza Pultarova
Source:     SPACE
Publication Date:     17 June 2023
 Link: Humans are pumping out so much groundwater that it’s changing Earth’s tilt
Stephan:  

Humans just don’t seem to be able to comprehend what climate change is doing to the earth and, therefore, we keep making the same mistakes over and over. Here is an example of what I mean. Will we ever wake up and do what is necessary for our cultures to survive? I actually don’t think so. Not until the changes are catastrophic and we have no choice. Just look at the way the U.S., particularly in the Republican controlled Red States, is responding to sea rise, and temperature rise. Look at the news. Do you get it?

Scientists discovered that Earth’s tilt has changed because of the amount of ground water pumped by humans. Image credit: Seo et al.

Earth’s tilt has changed by 31.5 inches (80 centimeters) between 1993 and 2010 because of the amount of  groundwater humans have pumped from the planet’s interior. 

In that period, humans removed 2,150 gigatons of water from natural reservoirs in the planet’s crust. If such an amount was poured into the global ocean, its surface would rise by 0.24 inches (6 millimeters). A new study has now revealed that displacing such an enormous amount of water has had an effect on the axis around which the planet spins. 

Scientists arrived at this conclusion by modeling the changes in the position of Earth‘s rotational pole, the point at which the planet’s imaginary axis would stick out of the surface if it were a physical object. The position of the rotational pole is not identical with the geographical north and south poles and actually changes over time, so the rotational axis cuts through different spots on the planet’s crust at various […]

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