Terrifying Effects of Melting Ice in the Poles, Altering Earth's Rotation and Disrupting Time

Dream - A recent study reveals that everyone in the world will lose their time. When exactly it will happen is greatly influenced by human behavior. The cause is the melting of ice in the polar regions which can alter the rotation of the Earth and time. The hours and minutes that determine our days are determined by the rotation of the Earth. However, that rotation is not constant. It can change slightly, depending on what happens on the surface of the Earth and the melting of the core.

The almost imperceptible change sometimes means that the world clock needs to be adjusted with the 'leap second' which may sound trivial but can have a significant impact on computer systems. Many seconds have been added over the years. However, after a long enough slowdown trend, the Earth's rotation is now getting faster due to changes in its core.

"One negative leap second has never been added or tested, so the problem it can cause is something that has never happened before," said Patrizia Tavella, a member of the Time Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France, as quoted from CNN.

However, when exactly this will happen, according to research published in the journal Nature, is influenced by global warming. The melting of ice in the polar regions delays the second leap by three years, pushing it from 2026 to 2029, according to the findings of the report.

"Part of figuring out what will happen in global timing accuracy depends on understanding the consequences of global warming," said Duncan Agnew, a professor of geophysics at the University of California San Diego. Before 1955, one second was defined as the specific time it took for the Earth to complete one rotation against the stars."

Then came the era of highly precise atomic clocks, which proved to be a much more stable way of determining physical seconds. Since the late 1960s, the world began using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to establish time zones. UTC relies on atomic clocks while still compensating for the rotation of the planet.

However, because the rotation speed is not constant, both time scales gradually deviate. This means that leap seconds need to be occasionally added to realign them.

The long-term rotation of the Earth is dominated by tidal friction at the seafloor, which slows down its rotation. Recently, the melting of ice at the poles, caused by human burning of fossil fuels that heats up the Earth, has become a significant factor. "As ice melts into the ocean, meltwater moves from the poles towards the equator, further slowing down the rotation speed of the Earth," said Agnew.

Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, describes the process as a skater spinning with their hand above their head. As they lower their arm towards their shoulder, their rotation slows down. "The melting of ice at the poles is significant enough to affect the rotation of the entire Earth in ways that have never happened before. For me, the fact that humans have caused this change in Earth's rotation is truly astonishing," says Agnew. However, although the melting of ice may slow down the Earth's rotation, there are other factors at play in global timing accuracy, namely processes in the Earth's core.

"The liquid core of this planet rotates independently from its solid outer shell. If the core slows down, then the solid shell will spin faster to maintain momentum, and that is what is currently happening," explained Agnew."

"Very little is known about what happens about 4.5 meters below the Earth's surface, and it is not clear why the speed of the Earth's core changes. This is essentially unpredictable," he added. However, according to the research, although the melting of ice at the poles has a slowing effect, overall the rotation of the Earth is getting faster. This means that the world will soon need to subtract one second for the first time."

"One second may not seem very long, but a computational system designed for activities such as stock market transactions must be accurate to within one thousandth of a second," said Agnew. Many computer systems have software that allows them to add one second, but only a few have the ability to subtract one second. Humans need to reprogram the computer, which can lead to potential errors. "No one really anticipated that the speed of the Earth would reach a point where we might have to eliminate leap seconds," said Agnew. Report: Nisya Aprilya""

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