It sounds like something out of a movie, but it could be true. Scientists and engineers are investigating a possible cause that could cause this China influences the rotation of the earthwhat would cause the days are longer, in a minimal percentage, although equally impressive for science.
According to specialists, this is due to a hydroelectric dam in China. Actually it is the largest and most powerful dam in the world. It is not without reason that this beast could change the course of the Earth’s rotation.
This is the dam The three gorges, is located in Hubei, China and it is a technical monster. An impressive amount of water is retained in the dam. So scientists decided to investigate its main effects on Earth, and what they discovered was surprising. The dam could change the Earth’s rotation.
And that’s not all, but thanks to this rotation, time can be influenced. As indicated Benjamin Fong Chao, a NASA geophysicist, The dam could be the cause The length of the days can be extended by up to 0.06 microseconds.
Could a hydroelectric dam change the Earth’s rotation?
It all started in 2005, when NASA wanted to investigate the possible consequences that the shocking event could have caused. 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. They discovered that it involved the movement of tectonic plates influence on the rotation of the earth. At that time, the earthquake and tsunami shortened the day length by 2.68 microseconds.
Fong Chao explained that the dam can hold approx 40 cubic kilometers of waterwhat the distribution of mass on Earth and would especially be a day extension by 0.06 microseconds and also «would shift Earth’s polar position by about 2 centimeters«.
They explain that although these changes in time are minimal and imperceptible to humans, for geophysics it is a very significant effect in science, taking into account that the changes are due to an invention of the man.
The immensity of the Three Gorges Dam in China
The reason why this dam can have such impressive effects, such as the rotation of the Earth, is due to its main features: it is the largest and most powerful hydroelectric power station in the worldboth in terms of expansion and installed capacity.
The Three Gorges Dam is located in the upper reaches of the the Yangtze Riverwhich has the longest river course in China. There are the famous three gorges; the Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge.
The capacity of this hydroelectric power station is approx 22,500MW and is the average annual production 88.2 TWh/year. Even in 2014, China’s dam reached one record of 98.8 TWh of hydroelectric energywhich surpasses the Itaipú Binational Dam, located between Paraguay and Brazil. Moreover, this dam has helped reduce emissions of 100 million tons of carbon dioxidethanks to the fact that it is a renewable energy, so all the consequences for the planet are enormous.
It is thanks to these colossal figures that the Chinese hydroelectric dam has managed to have such a huge impact on the Earth’s rotation and time change. Although it seems unbelievable, they assure that it is possible large movements of the tectonic plates cause these changes in the distribution of the Earth’s mass and thus side effects arise that leave everyone in the world of geophysics and science open-mouthed.