Rebecca Manzi The Three Gorges Dam, located on the Yangtze River in China, is the largest dam in the world and represents one of the most impressive engineering feats in human history. However, its impact is not limited to the environment and local communities: its immense reservoir, which can hold up to 39 trillion kilograms of water, is also influencing the Earth's rotation.
@Wikipedia
For years, China has been known to be an expert in building monumental infrastructure projects. Its most ambitious regional project is the Three Gorges Dam, which is situated in Hubei province. The highly dramatic hydroelectric project-the world’s biggest-took 18 years, with operations starting in 2012.
The Three Gorges Dam has become a symbol of the modern Chinese engineering marvel, with a generation capacity of 22,500 MW and a water storage capacity of more than 10.3 trillion gallons (39 billion cubic meters). But its impacts reach much further than energy production and flood control.
How the three gorges dam slowed earth’s rotation
Scientific studies have revealed that the massive redistribution of water caused by the dam’s construction has had a minor yet measurable effect on Earth’s rotation. The planet’s rotation has slowed by approximately 0.06 microseconds, a result of the enormous volume of water—10.3 trillion gallons—being held 574 feet (175 meters) above sea level. This redistribution of mass alters the Earth’s inertia, causing a slight change in the length of the day.
Shifting the earthly poles by two centimeters
Besides lengthening the day, the dam has also shifted the Earth’s poles by about 0.8 inches (2 centimeters). None of these changes have any effect on human everyday life; however, these do remain particularly interesting to scientists. The limited deviation in the day’s length must be compensated by instruments, like atomic clocks, which require extreme accuracy.
This is a nice example of how huge human infrastructure projects can affect the planet on a geophysical scale. While there is no direct impact on the population due to this particular phenomenon, the scientific and engineering implications make for interesting reading on how larger effects from such projects on Earth’s systems must be taken into consideration.
The Three Gorges Dam is an example that proves the importance of the holistic approach to infrastructure planning and building. Besides the economic and energy-related profits, there should be strong emphasis on long-term environmental and geophysical consequences. This should always come first, above any short-term profit or interest in contributing toward the care of our planet.
