Here’s a story from the Department of Unintended Consequences: there’s new research out that says dams – the ones we’ve built – have caused the North Pole to move.
It hasn’t moved by a lot, and it doesn’t look like that movement has led to any big changes or challenges, but still, a bunch of dams did this?
What this study out of Harvard University says is, yes, a bunch of dams did this.
But first let’s explain what “this” is, in a hopefully basic but accurate way.
Earth rotates, and the stuff on the surface of a rotating object like a planet can affect that rotation.
Move the material on the surface, and the rotation will change so the object can maintain its momentum.
That can cause what scientists call true polar wander.
The researchers built a historical database of dams going back to the 1800s, when people started to build the big modern ones.
And they calculated how putting large amounts of water behind thousands of dams all over the world changed the balance of materials on the surface of the planet, affecting its rotation.
In all, dams and the water they hold have caused the North Pole to “wander” just about three feet from 1835 to 2011.
They’ve also caused global sea levels to drop by a little less than an inch.
The scientists say neither of these findings are cause for alarm on their own.
But since scientists are also closely watching changes in sea levels because of climate change, it’s worth knowing and watching the effects of projects like dams so that we aren’t causing ourselves problems down the road.
And also, it’s worth knowing whether a project is going to move the poles, cause we don’t want those polar explorers standing in the wrong spot, do we?
Starting today in Michigan City, Indiana, it’s the Singing Sands Sand Sculpting Festival.
I don’t know how much singing you’ll hear in the sands, with all the festivalgoers around.
But you’ll get three days of food, music and sand sculptors from all over the country doing what they do best.
Just don’t invite noted sand hater Anakin Skywalker.
Water storage in dams has caused minute shifts in Earth’s poles (Harvard’s Advancing Earth and Space Sciences)
The Singing Sands Sand Sculpting Festival
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