In the past two decades, we displaced so much groundwater—equivalent to the weight of 5.5 million Empire State Buildings—that the Earth’s axis has shifted 31 inches eastward due to weight redistribution, new research found.
Underground water from aquifers, used for irrigation and other human activities, ends up in the ocean and causes a redistribution of weight.
Though the shift won’t affect the length of days or seasons, according to a researcher, the findings are surprising because we have displaced 2,150 gigatons of groundwater between 1993 and 2010.
The study, published June 15 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, says the extracted water has added 6.24 millimeters to sea levels.