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Rampant groundwater pumping has changed the tilt of Earth’s axis

Human depletion of underground reservoirs has shifted the global distribution of water so much that the North Pole has drifted by more than 4 centimetres per year.
  1. Davide Castelvecchi
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The Earth has lost enough groundwater to thirsty humans to measurably tilt the planet’s axis of rotation1.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01993-z

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 19 June 2023: This story has been updated with comment from a scientist who was not involved with the research.

References

  1. Seo, K.-W. et al. Geo. Res. Lett. 50, e2023GL103509 (2023).

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