Three Gorges Dam Tiny Spin: NASA Calculations Show Subtle Shift in Earth's Rotation
NASA scientists calculated that filling the Three Gorges Dam reservoir would lengthen the length of day by about 0.06 microseconds and shift Earth’s pole by roughly 2 centimeters due to moving 40 cubic kilometers of water higher up; the effect is minuscule compared with the Moon’s tidal slowing and other mass redistributions such as groundwater pumping and ice melt. It’s a real but negligible physical consequence of large-scale engineering, not a weapon or warning.
