Science

NASA Claims China’s Giant Dam Is Quietly Changing Time And Earth’s Balance

Published on June 10, 2025

It appears that architects are embracing the notion that larger is better as the globe continues to progress at an alarming rate.

The Burj Khalifa, Beijing Daxing International Airport, and the International Space Station—despite not being on Earth—are among the world’s largest megastructures, along with more historic ones like the Great Wall of China.

Another construction mammoth is China’s Three Gorges Dam, which is a gem in the nation’s energy production crown even though China intends to construct a massive power plant the size of it in space.

NASA is investigating the potential effects of these megastructures on our planet, in addition to the approval of a huge dam on China’s Yarlung Tsangpo River that is three times larger than the Three Gorges Dam.

In the far west of Wuhan, the Three Gorges Dam rises 175 meters above sea level and is the largest power plant in the world.

With its powerful 22 km3 reservoir flood storage capacity, this has resulted in 140 towns, 13 inundated cities, and the eviction of more than 31 million people.

The Three Gorges Dam cost a staggering ¥203 billion ($31.765 billion), but many people believe it was well worth it because it can generate 0.54 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per day and power 5.4 million households for a month when it is operating at full capacity.

The Three Gorges Dam is negatively impacting the planet’s rotation, said Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, a geophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre.

The greatest hydroelectric dam in the world can extend a day by 0.06 microseconds when it is filled with 10 trillion gallons of water.

Over on Reddit, one person fumed: “F**king corporations. They’ll do anything to get me to work a little longer.”

Someone else complained: “I knew my work day felt longer – f**kers”

A third said, “Bro, 24hrs was long enough.”

It all comes down to the moment of inertia, which is the way that a body’s rotational speed is influenced by its mass distribution. The Three Gorges’ movement across so much water has had a subtle impact on Earth’s rotation and mass distribution.

For instance, the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean caused a significant shift in the tectonic plates of the Earth and reduced the duration of a day by 2.68 microseconds.

It is also said that by moving the North and South Poles by two centimetres (0.8 inch), the Three Gorges can make the top of the Earth somewhat flatter.

Using data spanning 120 years, a study published in Nature titled “Contributions of core, mantle and climatological processes to Earth’s polar motion” also found that since 2000, climate change has caused our days to lengthen by 1.33 milliseconds per 100 years.

Regarding the Three Gorges, we shouldn’t be too concerned because 0.06 microseconds is equivalent to just over three days over the universe’s total age.

Alright, so while the workweek is prolonged by one day each year, we won’t be shackled to our desks for even longer. Oh, phew.