According to the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, humans pumped 2,150 gigatons of groundwater from Earth, causing it to shift off the axis.
While the insights from the study are certainly alarming and raise more questions about how humans contribute to climate change, the researchers’ prediction is also very difficult to verify.
In general, scientists say the Earth’s axis of rotation can move depending on the crust. In addition, the distribution of water on our planet may affect how the mass of the Earth’s crust is distributed and thus may have a role in how the Earth’s tilt is determined.
One of the easiest ways to think about this is to think of adding a very small amount of weight to a top. This weight will then change the way the top spins. In this example, the Earth is at the top and the weight on it is the groundwater level. So the Earth spins a little differently depending on how we move its water.
Changes in the movement and distribution of groundwater seem to have the greatest impact on what is called a shift of the axis of rotation. Because of this, some researchers are worried about what these movements might mean for Earth’s tilt going forward.
Also, these changes in the distribution of Earth’s groundwater are likely to be linked to rising global sea levels, which we have seen to increase in recent years.
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