Science & Technology

The Earth's spin is now slowing down at an 'unprecedented' rate

By T.K. Randall
May 26, 2026

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) You might be forgiven for thinking that the length of a day is a fixed length of time - the time it takes the Earth to complete a single rotation - yet this period is in fact constantly in motion, influenced by a number of factors including what's going on with the atmosphere and the ocean currents.

Now, according to a new study, this rate of change is at the moment 'unprecedented' owing to the knock-on effects of global warming and how it is impacting the poles.

The new research has found that when the polar ice caps and glaciers melt due to rising global temperatures, the water ultimately spreads from the poles toward the equator.

This has the effect of slowing the Earth's spin and increasing the length of a day.

Those hoping to see 25-hour days may have to wait quite a while, however, as the effect - despite being significant geologically speaking - only amounts to 1.33 milliseconds per century."Such a shift in the length of day requires a staggering redistribution of mass: on the order of 1,000 gigatonnes moving from the poles to the oceans," said study co-author Prof Benedikt Soja.

"To visualise this amount, imagine a solid cube of ice placed over New York City."

"It would be 10km high, taller than Mount Everest."

The rate of change is in fact so significant that it is necessary to go back two million years to find a period in Earth's history that was remotely comparable.

Exactly what impact this will have on our planet and on us moving forward, remains unclear.

Source: Science Focus

Tags: Earth, Climate Change