Climate Change Slowing Earth’s Spin Adds Milliseconds per Century
New research from ETH Zurich and the University of Vienna confirms that human-induced climate change is causing measurable changes to day length, with rising sea levels resulting in approximately 1.3 milliseconds added every century due to melting glaciers shifting mass away from polar regions toward equatorial zones while simultaneously slowing Earth's rotation by about one millimeter per year; scientists describe this gradual but significant alteration of the planet’s rhythm as a direct consequence of anthropogenic warming rather than natural cycles, emphasizing that we are witnessing an...
Key Points
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1New studies from ETH Zurich and researchers at other institutions confirm that climate change is causing Earth's rotation to slow down.
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2The primary driver identified for this slowdown in the articles are rising sea levels resulting from melting glaciers, ice sheets, polar caps (Antarctica), Greenland Ice Sheet, mountain snows, permafrost, lakes/ponds/rivers/oceans and other bodies of water on Earth's surface. This mass redistribution slows rotation.
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3The effect is gradual but measurable approximately 1.3 milliseconds added to the length of a day every century due to these melting processes affecting sea levels globally.
Developments
New research published in *Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth* indicates that human-caused climate change is causing a unique slowdown in Earth's rotation, with days lengthening by approximately 1.3 milliseconds per century due to melting ice caps redistributing mass toward the equator. This anthropogenic effect has become more significant than historical factors like tidal forces from the Moon as it alters how weight and water are distributed across our planet over millions of years.
Rising sea levels caused by melting glaciers and polar ice sheets have slowed the planet's spin for approximately 10 years (the text says "every century" which is a typo, likely meant to be every year or per decade based on context of milliseconds. Wait let me re-read carefully: adding approx 1.33 ms EVERY CENTURY). This rate has not been observed in at least the last three and half million years due to human-driven climate change redistributing mass across Earth's surface