People pumping water has changed the Earth’s center of gravity
Asher Notheis
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The Earth has drifted almost an entire yard over the course of 17 years due to people pumping water to the planet’s surface, according to a new study.
In the study, researchers modeled changes in Earth’s rotational pole and the movement of water, by using only ice sheets and glaciers at first, and then adding different scenarios of how water is redistributed. This redistribution of water affects how mass on the planet is distributed, shifting Earth’s center of gravity as a result, according to the study published in Geophysical Research Letters from Advancing Earth and Space Science.
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“Earth’s rotational pole actually changes a lot,” said Ki-Weon Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul National University who led the study. “Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.”
Scientists have previously estimated that humans have pumped 2,150 gigatons of groundwater, equal to over 6 millimeters (0.24 inches) of sea level rise, between 1993 and 2010, though validating this is difficult.
The scientists’ latest research only matched the observed polar drift when they included the 2,150 gigatons estimate. When the research did not include the estimate, their model was off by 78.5 centimeters, or 31 inches; this is equal to 4.3 centimeters, or 1.7 inches, of drift every year.
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“I’m very glad to find the unexplained cause of the rotation pole drift,” Seo said. “On the other hand, as a resident of Earth and a father, I’m concerned and surprised to see that pumping groundwater is another source of sea-level rise.”
Seo said the next step scientists could take with this research could be studying the past, as polar motion data is available “from as early as the late 19th century.” Because of this, scientists could use this data “to understand continental water storage variations during the last 100 years.”