Water has power. So much power, in fact, that pumping Earth’s groundwater can change the planet’s tilt and rotation. It can also impact sea-level rise and other consequences of climate change. 

Pumping groundwater appears to have a greater consequence than ever previously thought. But now … we can see that, in less than two decades, Earth has tilted 31.5 inches as a result of pumping groundwater. This equates to 0.24 inches of sea level rise.

 “Earth’s rotational pole actually changes a lot,” Ki-Weon Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul National University and study lead, says in a statement. “Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.”

With the Earth moving on a rotational pole, the distribution of water on the planet impacts the distribution of mass. "Like adding a tiny bit of weight to a spinning top,’ authors say, ‘the Earth spins a little differently as water is moved around. I’m very glad to find the unexplained cause of the rotation pole drift,” Seo says. “On the other hand, as a resident of Earth and a father, I’m concerned and surprised to see that pumping groundwater is another source of sea-level rise.”

Now that the impact of water movement is known for such a short—and relatively recent—time, digging through historical data may help show trends and provide greater depth to the understanding of groundwater movement effects.

This data may also help conservationists understand how to work toward staving off continued sea level rise and other climate issues. Hopefully, changes can be properly implemented over time.