China's monster dam will slow the rotation of the Earth

by **Martian** » July 16th, 2012, 2:49 pm

The Myth: The filling of the reservoir behind Three Gorges Dam in China changed the rotation of the Earth.

The Evidence: Three Gorges Dam, China crosses the Yangtze River in Hubei province, China. It the world’s largest hydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW when completed. When the water level is maximum at 175 meters (574 ft) over sea level (91 meters (299 ft) above river level), the reservoir created by the dam is about 660 kilometers (410 mi) in length and 1.12 kilometers (0.70 mi) in width on average. The total surface area of the reservoir is 1045 square kilometers, and it will will flood a total area of 632 square kilometers, of land. The reservoir will contain about 39.3 cu km (9.43 cubic miles) of water. That water will weigh more than 39 trillion kilograms (42 billion tons).

A shift in a mass of that size would affect the rotation of the Earth due to a phenomena known as the moment of inertia, which is the inertia of a rigid rotating body with respect to its rotation. The moment of inertia of an object about a given axis describes how difficult it is to change its angular motion about that axis. The longer the distance of a mass to its axis of rotation, the slower it will spin. You may not know it, but you see examples of this in everyday life. For example, a figure skater attempting to spin faster will draw her arms tight to her bodies, and thereby reduce her moment of inertia. Similarly, a diver attempting to somersault faster will bring his body into a tucked position.

Raising 39 trillion kilograms of water 175 meters above sea level will increase the Earth’s moment of inertia and thus slow its rotation. However, the effect would extremely small. NASA scientists calculated that shift of such as mass would increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top. It would shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch). Note that a shift in any object’s mass on the Earth relative to its axis of rotation will change its moment of inertia, although most shifts are too small to be measured (but they can be calculated).

The Verdict: True.

by **loder** » July 16th, 2012, 6:43 pm

Crazy stuff, China seem unstoppable.

by **Rebel O Conner** » July 16th, 2012, 7:06 pm

sorry, but i don't beleive that at all.
39 trillion of kilograms, it's 39 000 000 000 metric tons.
the earth weight is 6 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 metric tons
this dam is nothing, really nothing.

to compare, tides in atlantic ocean can move 100 trillion metric tons of water ( 100 000 000 000 000 )
will it stop the rotation?

so, exept if you link to a serious site ( scientific one, not a forum or something) for me the verdict is: False.

by **Martian** » July 19th, 2012, 7:11 pm

sorry, but i don't beleive that at all.

What any of it? Why not?
As stated

Raising 39 trillion kilograms of water 175 meters above sea level will increase the Earth’s moment of inertia and thus slow its rotation.

Its the raising of that much water (weight) above sea level that is causing the slowing down, not only that but it is also changing the weather, China's pollution now stretches all the way around the globe!
Also this dam has caused over 3000 earthquakes since they started construction. The dam is situated on the edge of a plate and very very close to a fault line.

A trail of events has unfolded from the dam all the way up the 410-mile reservoir to the metropolis of Chongqing.
Small-scale earthquakes recorded by official monitoring stations and reported by the Chinese media.
Cracks split roads and sundered schoolhouses and apartments in newly built towns and villages on the bluffs looking down on the river.
The local government now says that 300,000 people will have to move out in addition to the 1.4m evicted to make way for the dam.
More than 50,000 residents have already been relocated owing to seismic problems that were not foreseen when the dam was built, according to the state news agency, Xinhua.

But going back to the main point - NASA ( http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news-print ... e=2005-009 ) scientists calculated that shift of such as mass would increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top. It would shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch). Note that a shift in any object’s mass on the Earth relative to its axis of rotation will change its moment of inertia, although most shifts are too small to be measured (but they can be calculated).

You shouldnt need anymore proof.

China will wish they hadnt built this monstrousity! It is destroying their people, environment and affecting ours.

Here are some of the sites this info came from, want more, google it.
http://yubanet.com/world/Chinese-study- ... slides.php
http://www.theenergylibrary.com/node/11435
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news-print ... e=2005-009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... gorges-dam

by **Keylek** » July 25th, 2012, 3:23 am

look, this is planet earth, stuff like this happen all the f**king time, like look at the ice age, alot of that ice was over sea level and was many times more heavy then that water source, like it covered most of the planet for gods sake, and completely reformed mountains and seas. may it effect the rotation of the earth? maybe. but yet the earth changes all the friggin time, like its angle to the sun changes, its speed changes, its orbit changes, ect. i know that takes thousands of years, but yet even if this little silly thing happen, as i see it, its another stupid scientist trying to get a quick buck by making up some bull s**t. like that stupid moron who said the CERN collider would make a black hole when it was first fired, and yet he forgot to mention he was a biologist and made millions in the process.

anyways, we are humans, we need water to survive and electricity to power our products, china has been going through a massive change in recent years where it needs more power for its people. so i see this as a good things, like even it it changes the speed it will be something like 0.000001 seconds a year. so to scientists, that would be a big deal, but yet for every normal person, not a single f**k will be given.

China's monster dam will slow the rotation of the Earth

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China's monster dam will slow the rotation of the Earth

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