Rising sea levels linked to climate change are slowing the rotation of Earth, slightly lengthening the duration of a day.
In new research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, scientists found the average length of a day is increasing by around 1.33 milliseconds per century.
The rate of change is the highest observed in at least 3.6 million years, highlighting the growing geophysical impact of global warming.
The slowdown is linked to melting glaciers and shrinking polar ice sheets. As ice melts, mass that was once concentrated at the poles redistributes towards the planet’s midsection, subtly altering Earth’s rotation.
Researchers analysed fossil chemistry to reconstruct sea-level changes over millions of years and model their impact on day length.
The work suggests modern climate-driven sea level rise is causing a faster shift in Earth’s rotational dynamics than previously recorded.
Benedikt Soja, a geophysicist at ETH Zurich, said: “Even though the changes are only milliseconds, they can cause problems in many areas, for example in precise space navigation, which requires accurate information on Earth’s rotation.”
Lead author Mostafa Kiani Shahvandi of the University of Vienna compared the effect to “a figure skater who spins more slowly once they stretch their arms and more rapidly once they keep their hands close to their body.”
Researchers say the findings underline how climate change is influencing not only ecosystems and sea levels – but also fundamental planetary processes.
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