China’s giant dam is making your days longer
China built a dam so big, it’s literally slowing down the planet
Ever feel like there’s just not enough time in the day? Well, good news; you’ve technically been given a little extra. Emphasis on little.
According to NASA’s Dr Benjamin Fong Chao, China’s massive Three Gorges Dam has slightly increased the length of our days.
Yep – a dam is messing with the planet’s rotation. Wild, right?
The Three Gorges Dam, completed in 2012 on the Yangtze River, is a monster of a structure.
It’s 2,335 metres long, 185 metres tall, and holds back about 40 cubic kilometres of water.
That’s 37.8 trillion litres for those of us who still think in kitchen measurements.
All that water isn’t just sitting there, though. It’s heavy, it’s powerful, and when it’s moved around, it shifts a tiny bit of Earth’s mass.
It’s like when a spinning chair slows down if you stick your arms and legs out. Except instead of a chair, it’s the entire planet.
China's Three Gorges Dam slowed down the Earth's rotation. pic.twitter.com/STqh1JvUfI
— March (@MarchUnofficial) April 26, 2025
Is this a big deal? Not really. The effect is super small, making our days 0.06 microseconds longer. That’s 0.00000006 seconds.
For context, it would take more than three days of added time over the entire age of the universe for you to notice.
NASA’s super-sensitive instruments picked it up, though, and it turns out the dam even nudged the Earth’s axis by about two centimetres.
So technically, the world shifted a little. Although it’s not enough to throw off your GPS or ruin your weekend plans.
Besides being an unintentional planetary speed bump, the dam is a big deal for China’s energy game.
It cranks out 22,500 megawatts of clean power (equal to about 15 nuclear reactors) and helps cut down on coal use and carbon emissions.
So, all in all, it’s doing more good than harm.
If you’re wondering what to do with your shiny new 0.06 microseconds, I did some Googling.
Turns out… absolutely nothing. Not enough time to blink, scratch your head, or even think about what to do with it.
It’s the thought that counts though.
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