Earth’s Rotation Slows As Days Grow Longer After 3.6 Million Years | WION Podcast
Why It Matters
A slower spin subtly disrupts GPS, satellite navigation and financial timing, while also providing a tangible metric of humanity’s unprecedented impact on Earth’s climate system.
Key Takeaways
- •Earth's day lengthening by ~1.33 milliseconds per century.
- •First measurable slowdown in Earth's rotation in 3.6 million years.
- •Human‑induced warming redistributes mass, significantly slowing planetary spin.
- •Melting ice sheets spread water globally, adding milliseconds to days.
- •Slower rotation will affect GPS, satellite navigation, and timing.
Summary
Scientists report that Earth’s rotation has slowed enough to lengthen days, marking the first measurable change in roughly 3.6 million years. The slowdown, quantified at about 1.33 milliseconds per century, is linked to accelerated melting of polar ice and mountain glaciers, which redistributes water mass and reduces the planet’s angular momentum.
The research team from the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich examined late Pliocene records and found no comparable rapid day‑lengthening events in the geological record. Their analysis attributes the current trend primarily to anthropogenic warming, which is causing unprecedented mass redistribution across the oceans.
“Accelerated melting of polar ice sheets is raising sea levels, slowing Earth’s rotation,” said Mustapa Keani Shavandi, while Benedict Sawyer of ETH Zurich warned that even millisecond shifts can perturb GPS satellites, space navigation, and high‑frequency financial networks.
If the trend continues, precise timing systems will require regular recalibration, and the phenomenon serves as a stark, quantifiable indicator of how human‑driven climate change can alter fundamental planetary dynamics.
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