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Pumping groundwater has caused the Earth's rotation to shift - study
The Jerusalem Post ^ | 6/18/2023 | JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

Posted on 06/18/2023 7:07:40 AM PDT by logi_cal869

By pumping water out of the ground and moving it elsewhere, humans have actually shifted such a large mass of water that the Earth tilted nearly 80 centimeters east between 1993 and 2010 alone, changing the planet’s rotational pole, according to a new study published in the American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical Research Letters.

Sea level rise is one of the most significant phenomena associated with the warming climate. Contemporary sea level rise has been monitored extensively by multiple observational techniques.

The research was entitled “Drift of the Earth’s pole confirms groundwater depletion as a significant contributor to global sea level rise 1993-2010.”

Based on climate models, scientists previously estimated humans pumped 2,150 gigatons of groundwater, equivalent to more than six millimeters of sea level rise during this period – but validating that estimate has been difficult.

One approach lies with the Earth’s rotational pole, which is the point around which the planet rotates. It moves during a process called polar motion, which is when the position of the Earth’s rotational pole varies relative to the crust. The distribution of water on the planet affects how mass is distributed. Like adding a tiny bit of weight to a spinning top, the Earth spins a little differently as water is moved around.

“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.”

Water: Changing the Earth's rotation Water’s ability to change the Earth’s rotation was discovered in 2016, and until now, the specific contribution of groundwater to these rotational changes was unexplored. In the new study, researchers modeled the observed changes in the drift of Earth’s rotational pole and the movement of water – first, with only ice sheets and glaciers considered and then adding in different scenarios of groundwater redistribution.

The model matched the observed polar drift only once the researchers included 2,150 gigatons of groundwater redistribution. Without it, the model was off by 78.5 centimeters or 4.3 centimeters of drift per year.

“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.”

The location of the groundwater matters for how much it could change polar drift; redistributing water from the midlatitudes has a larger impact on the rotational pole. During the study period, the most water was redistributed in western North America and northwestern India, both at midlatitudes.

Countries’ attempts to slow groundwater depletion rates, especially in those sensitive regions, could theoretically alter the change in drift, but only if such conservation approaches are sustained for decades, Seo said.

The next step for this research could be looking to the past. “Observing changes in Earth’s rotational pole is useful for understanding continent-scale water storage variations,” Seo said. “Polar motion data are available from as early as the late 19th century. So, we can potentially use those data to understand continental water storage variations during the last century. Were there any hydrological regime changes resulting from the warming climate? Polar motion could hold the answer.”

“This is a nice contribution and an important documentation for sure,” said Surendra Adhikari, a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who was not involved in this study. Adhikari published a 2016 paper on water redistribution impacting rotational drift. “They’ve quantified the role of groundwater pumping on polar motion, and it’s pretty significant.”

The rotational pole normally changes by several meters within about a year, so changes due to groundwater pumping don’t run the risk of shifting seasons. But on geologic time scales, polar drift can have an impact on climate, Adhikari added.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Chit/Chat; Science
KEYWORDS: agitprop; agu; astronomy; catastrophism; climatechangehoax; ecoterrorism; ecoterrorists; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; judysiegelitzkovich; science
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To: Reno89519

Not even remotely believable that it can be measured to that accuracy!


21 posted on 06/18/2023 7:27:51 AM PDT by Reily (!!)
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To: Jim W N

The Earth has been overdue for a magnetic pole shift for many years. Coincidence?


22 posted on 06/18/2023 7:30:07 AM PDT by JVahey
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To: Big Giant Head

It’s MANKIND doing it!!! I swear!!! We’re all going to die, unless we die off enough people to keep us from all dying off!! Mankind is evil to the planet and it’s going to reject us right out into space, unless we give the overlords all control over us, so they can kill off enough of us to keep from killing off the rest of us.

Is that about how it goes? I think I got that right.

https://theethicalskeptic.com/2020/02/16/the-climate-change-alternative-we-ignore-to-our-peril/


23 posted on 06/18/2023 7:31:14 AM PDT by Big Giant Head ( )
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To: dfwgator
2,150 gigatons of groundwater

GREAT SCOTT!

24 posted on 06/18/2023 7:33:38 AM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity’s waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: logi_cal869
Imagine that. A study! Another study!

Like the pole hasn't drifted for millennia and eons?

From Britannica: "The study of polar wandering began in the early 20th century with Austrian priest and geologist Damian Kreichgauer and German scientists Wladimir Köppen and Alfred Wegener, who proposed the first paths of geomagnetic North Pole migration. It was long recognized that the directions of magnetization of many rocks do not correspond to the present direction of the geomagnetic field at their sites, but not until the 1950s was there sufficient paleomagnetic data to suggest that the poles had moved in a systematic way over Earth's surface."

Source: https://www.britannica.com/science/polar-wandering

Highlighting the phrase -- sufficient paleomagnetic data.

Well, that's disappointing but one notes an internet search of the "study" finds that it now populates multiple media sites, all with the "it's man's fault" for pumping groundwater. Implication of this? Send more money for studies. Stop pumping water for agriculture. And make the climate change folks livid. because it was gases but NOW it's pumping groundwater. Oy.

25 posted on 06/18/2023 7:35:18 AM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: logi_cal869

It is MORE LIKELY that shipping military hardware to the Ukraine has caused far greater damage.
And then there is the stuff that was left behind in Afghanistan.
Academic exercises posing as conclusive proof of human-caused climate change are for fools, liars and frauds.


26 posted on 06/18/2023 7:35:30 AM PDT by Honest Nigerian
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To: logi_cal869

And just a few years back they were screaming that the Three Gorges Dam in China was doing the same.


27 posted on 06/18/2023 7:36:06 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”)
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To: Reno89519

There you go using math and science to downplay TRUTH!

White supremacist, obviously.


28 posted on 06/18/2023 7:36:22 AM PDT by bobbo666 (Baizuo)
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To: logi_cal869

Interesting what happens when science actually works, huh? Obviously more room for study,


Do you understand how many variables had to be ignored to come up with this?

This is not science, it does not warrant further investigation.

Statistics/modeling can be a useful tool in the right hands.
This is not it. At best, they raise a question, not give you an answer. I can balance a wheel on my car, can I change the balance of the earth of sun?

Statistics/modeling ware tools in closed, limited controlled environment like manufacturing. Complex ones, like the human body, you can’t measure enough variables to get a good answer.


29 posted on 06/18/2023 7:38:49 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: logi_cal869

First it was China building to much in one area causing it now it’s pumping groundwater.

Oh brother stories never end.


30 posted on 06/18/2023 7:38:57 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: logi_cal869; 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AnalogReigns; AndrewC; ...
Thanks logi_cal869, I needed the laugh.

Pumping water to drink and irrigate is, obviously, another cisgendered white supremacist homophobic colonizing microaggression.



31 posted on 06/18/2023 7:39:17 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: logi_cal869

Meanwhile, continental drift, erupting volcanoes, and rising or falling mountain ranges are anecdotal.


32 posted on 06/18/2023 7:39:51 AM PDT by Tellurian (To the Dems, the middle class is a festering wound. They want it amputated.)
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To: logi_cal869

33 posted on 06/18/2023 7:40:26 AM PDT by Bratch
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To: logi_cal869

In other words ban all wells. .🙄


34 posted on 06/18/2023 7:40:40 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: logi_cal869
Here is the discussion over on Watts Up With That, https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/16/claim-weve-pumped-so-much-groundwater-that-weve-nudged-the-earths-spin/

Some interesting points in the commentary: How did it pass peer review?, What about replenishment? What about tidal affects? What about plate tectonics? And, how did the pole tilt east? (Trick question)

One writer: "I rate this a 10 on the BS scale. Make that 11! With extra cowbells."

35 posted on 06/18/2023 7:44:27 AM PDT by Reno89519 (Donald Tantrum? No Thank You. We Can Do Better! I am a Veteran Supporting Veteran DeSantis.)
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To: logi_cal869
Houston, I found the problem:
Based on climate models


36 posted on 06/18/2023 7:46:23 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: logi_cal869
...but validating that estimate has been difficult.

That's not even necessary. For these people saying it is as good as proving it.

37 posted on 06/18/2023 7:49:18 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Soros on assisting the Nazis with the Holocaust: "That's when my character was made.")
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To: logi_cal869

38 posted on 06/18/2023 7:50:16 AM PDT by jerod (Nazi's were essentially Socialist in Hugo Boss uniforms... Get over it!)
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To: BenLurkin

Just the concentration of so much of the Earth’s human population and associated activities in one corner of the continent (Asia, between India, China & Malaysia et al) alone.

My comment was a mix of sarcasm. I mean...they discovered evidence of precession and simultaneously undercut the glacial melt argument for AGW.

I’m satisfied that it’s giving the laughs I got out of it.

More ‘damned dirty humans’ mixed with real science.


39 posted on 06/18/2023 7:59:52 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: logi_cal869

Is that why Guam slipped and capsized and fell into the ocean?


40 posted on 06/18/2023 8:03:32 AM PDT by I want the USA back (A man is not a woman. A woman is not a man. There is no in-between or undefined middle. )
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