Startling Discovery: Earth’s Pole Has Moved 80 cm!

Groundwater depletion has a notable effect on the earth’s rotation, causing a shift of 4.36 centimetres annually from 1993 to 2010. The countries most affected by water scarcity, leading to excessive groundwater usage, are India and the US.

According to a study published in Geophysical Research Letter, the melting of polar ice caps and glaciers are actually the root cause of sea level rise, but groundwater depletion caused by irrigation has also been suggested as a significant anthropogenic factor in sea level rise.

Scientists have found that humans have extracted about 2,150 gigatons of groundwater, equivalent to more than 0.24 inches of sea level rise.

To better understand the phenomenon, we need to know the changes in the Earth’s rotation poles that target the outermost layer of the Earth (i.e. water). Because water is distributed in a larger proportion, its weight and small changes can cause changes in the Earth’s rotation.

The study shows that the model shows that if the water were distributed from the aquifers to the oceans, the Earth’s pole of rotation would shift about 78.48 cm toward 64.16° east longitude. It also shows that for climate-related reasons, groundwater redistribution actually has the biggest impact on the drift of the rotating pole, geophysicist Ki-Weon Seo of Seoul National University, who led the study, said in a statement. American Geophysical Union.

The research was mostly done in western North America and northwestern India to better preserve the location of the aquifers and more effectively study the rotation of the Earth.

To make other nations aware of the matter, scientists have also warned that these changes may affect the climate and seasons in the near future. Global climate models have clearly confirmed that groundwater depletion is the main cause of sea level rise in recent decades, which has caused drastic changes in the displacement of the Earth’s poles.