Earth is spinning faster than usual and this is how it affects us

In the 1960’s, scientists began measuring the planet’s rotation with high-precision atomic clocks. And on June 29, 2022 the Earth racked up an unusual record: its shortest day since then, rotating 1.59 milliseconds less than 24 hours per International Earth Rotation.

July 26 neared the newly-set record, at 1.50 milliseconds shorter than usual. So, why is the  Earth spinning faster? Scientists are not completely certain, but they have a few possible explanations.

Some experts believe the melting and refreezing of ice caps could be contributing to the irregular speed, they told the New York Post.

Earthquakes can also make the days shorter, they added. The 2004 earthquake that unleashed a tsunami in the Indian Ocean shifted enough rock to shorten the length of the day by nearly three microseconds.

Also known as the Chandler variation of latitude, the “Chandler Wobble” is a natural shifting of the Earth’s axis due to the planet not being perfectly spherical, and could be linked to the spinning speeds, three scientists wrote in The Conversation.

Image: Chuttersnap/Unsplash

On the other hand, stronger winds in ‘El Niño’ years can slow down the planet’s spin, extending the day by a fraction of a millisecond, according to NASA. The name 'El Niño' is used to describe the warming of sea surface temperature that occurs every few years.

“Basically anything that moves mass towards the centre of the Earth will speed up the planet’s rotation, much as a spinning ice skater speeds up when they pull in their arms”, explained Ian Sample, science editor of The Guardian.

But over the longer term, the Earth is actually spinning more slowly than it used to, compared to when dinosaurs walked this planet, scientists said.

Wind the clock back 1.4 billion years and a day would pass in less than 19 hours. On average, then, Earth days are getting longer rather than shorter, by about one 74,000th of a second each year.

The moon is mostly to blame for the effect: the gravitational tug slightly distorts the planet, producing tidal friction that steadily slows the Earth’s rotation.

Image: Anderson Rian/Unsplash

To keep clocks in line with the planet’s spin, the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations body, has taken to adding occasional leap seconds in June or December, most recently in 2016.

However, adding leap seconds can be a risky practice that does more harm than good, several scientists have warned.

“A time skip like this can potentially crash programmes and corrupt data due to the timestamps on data storage”, Meta told The Independent.

However, even without adding leap seconds, if Earth spins faster, it could result in GPS satellites becoming useless, as a half-a-millisecond equates to 10-inches or 26 centimetres at the equator, Meta explained.

Furthermore, there are also potentially confusing consequences for smartphones, computers and communications systems, which synchronize with Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers. 

What does this mean for us, if Earth’s rotation does keep accelerating? It’s hard to say. Maybe there will be chaos across the tech industry, or maybe we won’t even notice, as time will be  flying by.