NASA confirms a massive man-made project is slowing down the Earth's rotation by..., it is located in...
This huge mass of water being stored at such a high elevation adds a significant amount of weight to one part of the planet. According to NASA scientist Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao from the Goddard Space Flight Center, moving such a large mass has slightly changed the way Earth rotates. It's not something humans can feel, but the shift has increased the length of a day by around 0.06 microseconds—or 0.00000006 seconds.
To put it in perspective, you'd need over 16 million structures like the Three Gorges Dam to slow Earth's rotation enough to add a full second to the year. So, while it's an interesting scientific finding, it doesn't have any noticeable effect on our daily lives.
Dr. Chao explains that any time you move around large amounts of mass on Earth—like water or land—it can have a slight influence on how the planet spins. These effects are very small, but they can still be measured with today's precise technology.
Joking about it, some people online wondered if we could use this slow-down to get an extra long weekend or joked that 'we slowed the Earth down before GTA 6 even launched!'
Despite its planetary influence, the Three Gorges Dam continues to be a cornerstone of China's clean energy efforts. It can generate 22,500 megawatts of electricity—equal to the output of about 15 nuclear power plants—and it plays a major role in reducing China's reliance on coal and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
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