The tilt of the earth's axis is changing due to the influence of mankind pumping up groundwater
Most of the water used by humans is supported by abundant groundwater, and it is estimated that the amount of water pumped from the ground between 1993 and 2010 is more than 2 trillion tons. As a result of the artificial movement of a large amount of water, the tilt of the earth's rotation axis has changed, and the North Pole has moved about 80 cm, or more than 4 cm per year, according to research results dated June 15, 2023. It was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Geophysical Research Letters.
Drift of Earth's Pole Confirms Groundwater Depletion as a Significant Contributor to Global Sea Level Rise 1993–2010 - Seo - 2023 - Geophysical Research Letters - Wiley Online Library
We've pumped so much groundwater that we've nudged the Earth's spin - AGU Newsroom
https://news.agu.org/press-release/weve-pumped-so-much-groundwater-that-weve-nudged-the-earths-spin
Rampant groundwater pumping has changed the tilt of Earth's axis
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01993-z
Although the tilt of a celestial body such as a planet is often stable, the movement of large masses inside or on the surface of a planet can cause the axis of rotation to fluctuate as well. In the case of the Earth, the most significant factor is seasonality, and it is thought that the Earth's axis wobbles by meters each year due to the movement of atmospheric masses that accompany the change of weather and seasons.
``Any mass moving on the Earth's surface can change its axis of rotation,'' explains Professor Ki-Weon Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul National University in South Korea.
The tilt of the earth's axis is also changed by the movement of water, but until now it was thought that this movement of water was mainly caused by the melting of glaciers. However, even if Professor Seo's research team calculated the movement of the earth's water enough to explain the tilt of the earth's axis, it did not match the data. The answer reached by the research team who could not solve the problem even considering the movement of glaciers and surface water was the movement of groundwater.
Below is the total change in groundwater storage (left) and the associated change in sea level (right) over the period 1993-2010 in
The researchers modeled changes in the Earth's axis of rotation and water movements derived from observations, then first performed calculations considering only glaciers and ice sheets, and then simulated the movements of different amounts of groundwater. bottom. As a result, it turned out that the tilt of the earth's axis matches the observation result only when 2150 gigatons, or 2.15 trillion tons of groundwater are displaced.
This amount of water is enough to raise global sea level by 6.24 millimeters, and if groundwater movement is not taken into account, there is an error of about 78.48 centimeters between the actual movement of the Earth's poles and the calculated result. It is said that it will occur.
From this result, the research team concluded that groundwater movement caused the Earth's rotation pole to move about 78.48 cm toward 64.16 degrees east longitude between 1993 and 2010. This means that groundwater effects alone are moving the North Pole about 4.36 cm per year toward
Below is a comparison of the observed polar movements (red arrows) with the calculated results without groundwater (dashed blue arrows) and with consideration (solid blue arrows). The results that take into account the movement of groundwater are in good agreement with the observed movement of the poles, indicating that the influence of groundwater on the Earth's rotation axis cannot be ignored.
Professor Seo said, 'I am very happy to have found the cause of the polar wobble. On the other hand, as a citizen of the Earth and as a father of children, pumping groundwater is another cause of sea level rise. Knowing that, I am surprised and concerned,' he said.
Related Posts:
in Science, Posted by log1l_ks