this capacity which worries NASA – La Nouvelle Tribune

The Chine has demonstrated its technological power through colossal achievements for several decades. The country particularly excels in the fields of artificial intelligence, 5G telecommunications, renewable energy and space exploration. Its ability to lead titanic infrastructure projects demonstrates its technical mastery and its ambition for global leadership. The Three Gorges Dam perfectly illustrates this Chinese technological prowess, but also raises unexpected concerns from scientists.

An infrastructure that defies the laws of physics

The dam of Three Gorges, completed in 2012 after 18 years of work, represents an unprecedented feat of engineering. This hydroelectric power station, the largest in the world, extends over 2,335 meters long and reaches 185 meters in height. Its water retention capacity reaches 40 cubic kilometers, the equivalent of 40,000 billion liters. This colossal mass of water attracts the attention of researchers from the NASAwho see it as a potential factor in modifying fundamental terrestrial parameters.

The butterfly effect on a global scale

The observations of the NASA reveal a surprising phenomenon: filling the dam could influence the very rotation of our planet. This theory is based on the concept of the moment of inertia, comparable to the movement of a skater who modifies his rotation speed by folding his arms. The Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, geophysicist at Center de vol spatial Goddardasserts that the accumulation of water in the dam could move the Earth’s pole by two centimeters and increase the length of a day by 0.06 microseconds.

A wake-up call for the future

This discovery highlights the considerable impact of human activities on earth mechanisms. The slowdown in the Earth’s rotation, already observed naturally due to lunar attraction, is amplified by massive human construction and climate change. The melting of polar ice and rising sea levels also contribute to this phenomenon by modifying the distribution of masses on Earth. Faced with these changes, scientists are considering the introduction of a “negative leap second” to maintain synchronization of atomic clocks. This situation is not only attributable to China, because other countries such as UNITED STATESthe Brazil et India have also built major hydroelectric dams, the cumulative effect of which could prove significant for our planet.