South Korean scientists, part of an international research group, have announced the possible direct influence of human activity on the Earth’s axis of rotation. According to their theory, large-scale groundwater withdrawal between 1993 and 2010 shifted the Earth’s axis of rotation by approximately 86.5 centimeters, as reported by Science XXI. According to expert estimates, about 2150 gigatons of water were pumped from underground during this period, most of which eventually ended up in the global ocean, causing its level to rise by 6 millimeters. This circumstance led to a redistribution of the planet’s mass, affecting its rotation. In Russia, the scientific community expresses disagreement with the conclusions of their foreign colleagues, believing that the volume of extracted water resources is insignificant against the backdrop of overall planetary scales. Employees of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences also emphasized that much larger, global processes influence the Earth’s axis.
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