Everyone knows about the grandiose structure in China - the Three Gorges Dam is currently the most powerful hydroelectric power plant in the world and also the most massive structure ever created by man.
So, when I read its description, on one of the resources I found the following statement: “the dam affected the rotation speed of our planet. During maximum tide, the artificial reservoir formed by the dam holds 39 billion tons of water. Such a huge mass led to a change in the inertia of the Earth's rotation, which is why the day on our planet became 0.06 microseconds longer."
That's nonsense, I thought, and just in case I went to check. It turned out that …
… theoretically real.
For example, in a similar question, about whether a nuclear explosion can somehow affect the rotation of the Earth, scientists answer as follows. The largest nuclear bomb has an explosive energy of several tens of kilotons, or 10 to the 17th power of Joules. And the energy of rotation of the Planet is estimated as 1- to the 29th power of Joules. Thus, even if you channel the energy of a nuclear explosion. we get a trillion times less capacity.
This can be compared to trying to turn a speeding car into collision with a flying mosquito.
But that's what interested me in the further reasoning of scientists. For example, they claim that the 2004 Sumatrev earthquake, which caused a colossal tsunami, affected the rotation of the Planet, reducing the day by several millionths of a second.
Promotional video:
The amount of energy in this earthquake was more than 10 to the 22 power, which is 100,000 times more powerful than the largest nuclear bomb.
Those. it turns out that if a huge reservoir is collected in one place, then it is still possible to somehow influence the rotation of the earth?