The ‘Three Gorges Dam’ in China is the world’s largest concrete structure but NASA says the dam has caused the Earth’s rotation to slow down! Crazy, isn’t it? Here are some shocking revelations about the world’s largest dam made in one of the world’s largest countries.
The Three Gorges Dam was imagined as the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world and was designed with an agenda to prevent devastating floods in China due to the Yangtze River. It was planned as an efficient means of power generation and flood control. But the biggest dam in the world has always been controversial since the beginning. It was built to save Chinese lives but thousands of lives have been destroyed during and after its construction. The dam has been downright catastrophic even after so many years of being functional. Besides attracting floods, earthquakes, and landslides, the dam has even affected the Earth’s rotation! But how?
Well, it’s not us but NASA has claimed that the Three Gorges Dam is so massive, it is visible from space to the naked eye! And not just that, they say the humongous structure has caused the Earth’s rotation to slow down. NASA calculated in 2005 that the controversial dam has affected the Earth’s rotation and even the position of the moon. The dam holds nearly 42 billion tonnes of water resulting in the Earth losing a bit of its momentum while rotating!
To understand this scientifically, the dam, due to its massive structure, has affected the ‘moment of inertia’ of the Earth creating a shift in the mass. This has caused the planet to slow down by 0.06 microseconds! The change in the rotation has not only made our days a tiny bit longer but has also changed the positions of the North and South Poles by 0.8 inches. This has ultimately affected our weights making us a little bit heavier! It is the only dam in the world that has affected the planet so significantly.
