Science & Technology

Human-made dams have shifted the position of the Earth's poles

By T.K. Randall
July 14, 2025 ·  2 comments

Image Credit: (PD) NASA via Wikimedia Commons While it is clear that human activities have had a significant impact on the Earth - especially over the last 200 years or so - few could have anticipated that our actions could have changed the location of the planet's poles by a measurable amount within such a relatively short space of time.

Sure enough, new research has revealed that the construction of these huge structures around the world has shifted the position of the Earth's poles by over one meter.

This same activity has also caused global sea levels to drop by around 0.83 inches.

The reason this has happened is because dams, which hold back enormous amount of water, effectively redistribute some of the mass of the Earth's surface, causing a slight wobble in the outermost layer of rock.This results in the poles passing through different surface locations - a phenomenon known as true polar wander.

"As we trap water behind dams, not only does it remove water from the oceans - thus leading to a global sea level fall - it also redistributes mass around the world," said Harvard University graduate student Natasha Valencic.

While these effects don't seem particularly significant, the change in sea level due to the construction of dams is an important factor to consider when calculating potential future sea level rise.

"Depending on where you place dams and reservoirs, the geometry of sea level rise will change," said Valencic.

"That's another factor we need to consider, because these changes can be quite large and significant."

Source: Gizmodo | Comments (2)

Tags: North Pole, South Pole