STOP THE EARTH: what’s wrong with our planet’s rotation

Photo by Vimal S on Unsplash

Scientists are sounding the alarm: our planet is shifting the position of its axis, and Earth’s rotation is slowing down. Why is this happening faster than scientific forecasts predicted, and could this process lead to consequences, such as severe climate changes or geological instability, that might threaten the existence of humanity?

EARTH IS «DRYING OUT»

lobal warming brings droughts, wildfires, and floods. It alters ecosystems and creates serious challenges for agriculture. But warming has another consequence of truly cosmic scale — the shift in Earth’s axis! While studying this phenomenon, scientists from Texas and Seoul universities found that it is linked to the global decline in soil moisture.

Under the impact of high temperatures, water located deep within the Earth can evaporate. This reduces the mass of the Earth’s crust and disrupts its usual balance. It turns out that hidden in the planet’s interior are vast reserves of water, three times the volume of the visible World Ocean. These underground waters remain invisible to the human eye, but exert a colossal influence on geophysical processes.

Changes in Earth’s rotation speed can occur for various reasons, many of them natural. For example, the movement of magma in the planet’s core or the interaction of Earth’s tides with the Moon’s gravity can affect rotational dynamics. At times, even catastrophic events such as the Chile earthquake in 2010 or the Southeast Asian tsunami in 2004 have caused a shift in Earth’s axis.

Such shifts may also occur due to the accumulation or melting of ice in certain regions. Scientists have long been observing these processes, but only recently discovered that drought and the loss of groundwater can also affect the planet’s rotation. This finding has become an important step toward understanding just how closely climate change is tied to Earth’s fundamental characteristics.

CHINA SLOWS DOWN THE PLANET

Does global warming have a technogenic origin? Some scientists still doubt that humans alone are to blame for climate change. They point out that throughout Earth’s history, periods of warming and cooling have alternated many times, and that these natural processes are cyclical. Yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to deny humanity’s contribution to the transformations now underway on the planet.

The scale of technological impact can be illustrated by the example of the world’s largest hydroelectric power station — the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. The creation of this colossal structure led to the accumulation of vast masses of water at an altitude unprecedented for such a volume. The 39.3 billion cubic meters of water raised above ground increased Earth’s rotational inertia and slowed it down. As a result, since 2012, when the 185-meter-high and 2.3-kilometer-long dam was finally completed, Earth’s days have become 0.06 microseconds longer.

WHY HAVEN’T WE BURNED OR FROZEN?

It is no coincidence that scientists speak of the Anthropocene — the newest geological epoch in which humans have become one of the most important factors in planetary processes. The changes caused by human activity are often subtle and may seem not too dangerous. However, technological achievements have serious long-term consequences, since their geophysical impact on our planet has already surpassed the influence of tectonic processes. To understand how crucial Earth’s axial tilt is, it is enough to recall how it came about.

About 4.5 billion years ago, our planet was struck by a cosmic body comparable in size to Mars, which scientists named Theia. As a result of this catastrophic collision, Earth’s axis tilted by 70 degrees, after which it slowly drifted to its current value — 23.5 degrees. This is an exceptionally «comfortable» value for life on our planet. If the tilt had been different, say 90 degrees, we would not be living but rather struggling to survive in conditions of an extremely cold six-month winter, followed by an infernally hot six-month summer.

WE BREATHE THANKS TO THE AXIAL TILT

After the brutal kick from Theia, our planet had to slow down its rotation — until days and nights settled into the familiar length we know today. The lengthening of the day about 2.4 billion years ago enabled cyanobacteria to develop a remarkable metabolism, whose byproduct was the oxygenation of the atmosphere. This was a true biological breakthrough that changed the chemical composition of the air and paved the way for complex life. The final rise in oxygen levels occurred about 550–800 million years ago. Had this process, which scientists call «oxygenation», not begun, most biological species — including us — would not exist today.

Even now, the slowdown has not stopped, since the Moon is gradually moving farther away and its gravitational pull on our planet is weakening. As a result, the day lengthens by 1.8 milliseconds every 100 years. It is hard to resist the thought that all this looks very much like the deliberate execution of a «divine plan», as creationists insist. But if we strictly follow scientific understanding, the facts provided are enough to see that all life on Earth is unlikely to remain indifferent to changes in the planet’s rotation speed and axial tilt!

Over the past 30 years, the frequency of agricultural and ecological droughts has increased by about 1.7 times compared to the 1850–1990 average. And it seems likely that it will continue to rise. It is high time for humanity to unite and focus on solving truly vital problems — rather than waging wars, which only increase social control and inequality.

Original research: