According to a study that was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the brilliant Earth's axis is moving east at a rate of about 1.7 inches per year as a result of persistent groundwater extraction and relocation during the past ten years.
According to the study's principal investigator, geophysicist Ki-Weon Seo of Seoul National University, "Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole."
According to the study, groundwater from the Earth's interior had been removed by humans more than 2,150 gigatons between 1993 and 2010. These researchers were from Korea, Australia, and the U.S.
According to The Washington Post, that much water could fill more than 860 million pools.
Western North America and northwest India have drawn the most groundwater, and "if that amount were poured into the ocean, it would raise global sea levels by about 0.24 inches (6 mm)," according to a study.
"How mass is distributed on the planet depends on the distribution of water. The Earth spins slightly differently as water is shifted about, similar to adding a tiny bit of weight to a spinning top, according to the statement.
Surendra Adhikari, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was reported by CNN as saying: "The ebb and flow of seasonal change is linked to the angle of the planet's rotational axis, and over geologic time, a wandering axis could affect climate on a global scale."
Groundwater is used for a variety of purposes, including irrigating crops, plumbing, supplying firefighting equipment, and feeding cattle, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Seasons exist because of Earth's rotational pole, which Seo explained to The Washington Post is "tilted about 23.5 degrees relative to our plane of orbit around the sun." Polar motion, a phenomenon where the globe wobbles about, causes this pole's precise location to shift significantly.
According to CNN, the movement of the brilliant Earth's poles is impacted by the redistribution of groundwater, which also affects the mantle flow or the movement of lava between the planet's crust and outer core.
"They've quantified the role of groundwater pumping on polar motion and it's pretty significant," Adhikari said in the release.
As a resident of Earth and a father, Seo said he was concerned and shocked to learn that pumping groundwater is another driver of sea-level rise, even though the discovery was able to explain the reason for the rotating pole drift.
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