Before I get into this post, this is one of the reasons I added a new page to the blog site, Topics I’m Following If you ever want to see what I may be thinking about writing next, check out the page of things that have caught my attention.
So, first off, I couldn’t resist the graphic. The title of the article was clearly click bait. The only thing it was missing was people falling off the edge of the Earth. We know that isn’t happening. Thank you, Newton, for the laws of gravity.
But you get my point. I’m poking fun at the headline, not necessarily the science behind it. Somewhere between the researchers publishing a study and the article showing up in my news feed, “scientists measured a tiny shift in Earth’s rotation axis” somehow became “humans tilted the Earth.” That’s a lot less dramatic than the headline writers would have you believe.
So, lets talk about this.
This actually isn’t the first article that I have seen where either the earths rotation or the actual tilt of the earth has changed for any number of reasons. Earth Quakes is the first thing that really comes to my mind.
But, based on what is in the article that caught my attention. The displacement of ground water is the most significant factor.
Yea, ok. I will make some assumptions here about why they say water is the most significant factor is because of weight and the displacement of this heavy weight to other areas of the globe. BUT, water is NOT the only thing that humans extract from the earth and move to other areas of the globe.
What about the other massive redistributions of material that humans have been causing for decades, and in some cases centuries?
Mining
We extract enormous amounts of material from the Earth every year. Rare earth minerals, gold, silver, copper, iron, and countless other resources are dug out of the ground and then shipped around the world for manufacturing and industrial use. If moving groundwater can affect the Earth’s rotation axis, how does the movement of billions of tons of mined material compare?
Oil and Gas Extraction
The same question applies to oil and natural gas. We drill for it, pump it out of underground reservoirs, transport it across continents and oceans, refine it, and use it around the globe. Groundwater isn’t the only thing humans have been relocating on a massive scale.
Dams and Reservoirs
Then there is the storage of water itself. One of the best examples is China’s Three Gorges Dam. The amount of water held behind that structure is difficult to comprehend. We are talking about billions of tons of water being concentrated in one location. If the movement of groundwater can influence the Earth’s axis, what effect does storing such enormous volumes of water behind dams and reservoirs have?
I am not saying the groundwater study is wrong. What I am saying is that it immediately raises additional questions. Humans have been moving water, minerals, oil, gas, and countless other materials around the planet for a very long time. Before accepting that groundwater is the dominant factor, I want to understand how it compares to these other large-scale redistributions of mass.
Another question that came to mind is whether some of these activities may partially offset one another.
The article focuses on groundwater being moved from underground aquifers and eventually finding its way into the oceans. However, humans are constantly moving enormous amounts of material around the planet. We mine resources in one location and transport them elsewhere. We build massive reservoirs that concentrate water inland. We extract oil and gas from underground formations. We build cities containing billions of tons of concrete, steel, and other materials.
If moving mass from one location can affect the Earth’s rotation axis, could other human activities be creating effects in different directions? Is it possible that some of these changes partially balance one another out?
I do not know the answer, but it is a question that immediately came to mind while reading the article.