US EditionClimate change is making Earth’s days longer: Study
Human-driven melting of polar ice sheets is lengthening Earth’s day by 1.33 milliseconds per century, the fastest slowdown in rotation in 3.6 million years, researchers found.
- On Tuesday, researchers from the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth that Earth's day is lengthening at about 1.33 milliseconds per century, an unprecedented slowdown in at least 3.6 million years.
- Human-Driven warming is melting polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers, moving water into oceans and redistributing Earth's mass farther from its spin axis, which slows rotation via conservation of angular momentum.
- By analysing fossil shells, researchers reconstructed sea-level changes from foraminifera and developed a Physics-Informed Diffusion Model to integrate paleoclimate data with physics constraints.
- Tiny shifts in Earth's spin risk disrupting GPS satellites, space missions, financial networks and telecommunications, though the general public is unlikely to notice millisecond-scale changes.
- The study suggests that on longer timescales, only one earlier period around 2 million years ago had comparable rates, while by the end of the 21st century, climate-driven mass redistribution could exceed the Moon's influence on day length.
37 Articles
37 Articles
Climate change is slowing Earth's spin at unprecedented rate compared to past 3.6 million years
Climate change is lengthening our days because rising sea levels slow Earth's rotation. Researchers from the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich now show that the current increase in day length—1.33 milliseconds per century—is unprecedented in the past 3.6 million years. The team reconstructed ancient day-length fluctuations using the fossil remains of single-celled marine organisms known as benthic foraminifera.
Earth’s Days Are Getting Longer For First Time In Millions Of Years
New scientific research reveals that Earth is spinning at a slower pace than usual, causing days to lengthen at a rate unprecedented in millions of years. While day length fluctuates naturally due to lunar gravity and geological shifts, a joint study by the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich confirms that human-induced climate change is now a primary driver, marking a shift unseen for at least 3.6 million years.The research explains that the me…
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