Sensational information, the earth is tilting | Climate Change | Water Cycle

How Human Water Use Is Shifting Earth's Axis

Imagine you are standing on a massive spinning top. The top is so large that its name is Earth. For billions of years it has been spinning on its own axis with incredible stability. But the interesting thing is that something we use every day can influence this rotation and balance of Earth. And that something is water.

When you pick up a glass of water, you barely feel its weight. But when humans pump thousands of gigatons of groundwater from deep beneath the earth year after year, the weight of that water shifts from one place on Earth to another. After use, this water eventually flows into the oceans. As a result, a subtle change occurs in the distribution of Earth's mass. And the effect of that change falls on the balance of the entire planet.

As unbelievable as it sounds, scientists say that because of this transfer of water, the position of Earth's north and south poles has shifted slightly. In just 17 years, the two poles have moved approximately 31.5 inches or 80 centimeters from their previous positions. Compared to the vastness of Earth, this may seem small — but for a planet, it is an extremely significant change.

The Research Behind the Discovery

In a study published in 2023, scientists showed that between 1993 and 2010, humans extracted approximately 2,150 gigatons of water from underground. To put that into perspective — 1 gigaton means 1 billion tons. The number is difficult even to imagine. But the displacement of this enormous amount of water has had a visible impact on Earth's balance.

When researchers added this massive water transfer into the mathematical model used to measure Earth's rotation and polar movement, it turned out to match exactly with the actual observed shift of the poles. Not only that — because this enormous amount of water extracted from underground eventually flows into the ocean, sea levels around the world have risen by approximately 6.24 millimeters or 0.24 inches.

Why Earth's Axis Moves: The Spinning Top Analogy

Earth does not spin perfectly upright — instead, it wobbles slightly, like a spinning top. If the weight of one part of the Earth shifts to another part, its rotational axis or poles shift slightly. In 2016, NASA explained this simply: just as a spinning top wobbles if extra weight is added to one side, the same happens with Earth. When the enormous amount of underground water changes location and accumulates in the ocean, the change in weight causes Earth's rotational axis to shift.

This was mathematically proven in the research published in Geophysical Research Letters. The lead scientist of the study, Ki-Weon Seo, stated that while he was pleased to have found the unknown reason behind the polar shift, he is quite concerned about the rise in sea levels caused by groundwater extraction.

What the Data Shows

Scientists analyzed data from 1993 to 2010 and found that approximately 150 gigatons of water extracted from underground for irrigation and household use, after flowing through rivers into the ocean, caused Earth's rotational pole to shift nearly 31.5 inches.