The day has become 0.06 microseconds longer, and the Earth's axis has shifted by about 2 cm due to the Chinese Three Gorges dam. The colossal volume of water changed the distribution of the planet's mass, increasing its moment of inertia, said Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, a geophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
"This is a little more than 3 days for the entire period of the existence of the universe," explained Chao.
The Three Gorges Dam is located on the Yangtze River in the Chinese province of Hubei. The dam, built in 2012, has a length of 2,335 meters and a height of 185 meters. It holds about 40 cubic kilometers of water. At the same time, the volume of water is at an altitude of 175 meters above sea level, which gives it considerable weight and potential energy. According to American scientists, the huge amount of water at the Chinese dam has changed the distribution of the Earth's mass. Which, in turn, increased the moment of inertia of the planet, just as a figure skater slows down rotation by stretching his arms.
"Every time you move a mass, you change the rotation of the Earth. The effect is very small, but measurable," said Chao.