this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
67 points (97.2% liked)

Earth, Environment, and Geosciences

2617 readers
20 users here now

Welcome to c/EarthScience @ Mander.xyz!

Notice Board

This is a work in progress, please don't mind the mess.

What is geoscience?

Geoscience (also called Earth Science) is the study of Earth. Geoscience includes so much more than rocks and volcanoes, it studies the processes that form and shape Earth's surface, the natural resources we use, and how water and ecosystems are interconnected. Geoscience uses tools and techniques from other science fields as well, such as chemistry, physics, biology, and math! Read more...

Quick Facts

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Be kind and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.

Jobs

Teaching Resources

Tools

Climate

Similar Communities

Sister Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Plants & Gardening

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Memes

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
fossilesque@mander.xyz
mishathings@mander.xyz
notsofunnycomment@mander.xyz
SciBot@mander.xyz
troyunrau@lemmy.ca
67
Dams around the world hold so much water they've shifted Earth's poles, new research shows (www.livescience.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/earthscience@mander.xyz
6 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The construction of thousands of dams since 1835 has caused Earth's poles to wobble, new research suggests.

Scientists found that large dams hold so much water they redistribute mass around the globe, shifting the position of Earth's crust relative to the mantle, the planet's middle layer.

Earth's mantle is gooey, and the crust forms a solid shell that can slide around on top of it. Weight on the crust that causes it to shift relative to the mantle also shifts the location of Earth's poles, the researchers said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago

I can't say I'm convinced? There are thousands of reasons why the poles could shift. But freshwater makes up such a small fraction of a tiny percentage of the mass on earth that I can't see it have that large of an effect, especially when only a fraction of a small percentage of the freshwater is being held by dams.