Rampant groundwater pumping has changed the tilt of Earth's axis
Rampant groundwater pumping has changed the tilt of Earth's axis
Human depletion of underground reservoirs has shifted the global distribution of water so much that the North Pole has drifted by more more than 4 centimetres per year.
In an unexpected twist of fate, "the Earth has lost enough groundwater to thirsty humans to measurably tilt the planet’s axis of rotation" according to this Nature article.
From the article:
"Shifts in water masses can cause smaller but still measurable changes in the tilt of Earth’s axis. Until recently, researchers thought that these water-driven effects would be caused mainly by the melting of glaciers and ice caps. But when Seo and his collaborators tried to model the Earth’s water content to account for how much the axis has tilted, they could not fully explain the data. Adding the effects of changes in surface reservoirs did not help, says Seo, “so I just scratched my head and said, ‘probably one effect is groundwater’”."