{"id":538198,"date":"2026-03-15T15:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T15:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/538198\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T15:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T15:09:10","slug":"earths-day-are-getting-longer-due-to-climate-change-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/538198\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth’s day are getting longer due to climate change: study"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study suggests climate change is doing something few people would ever notice: it\u2019s making the days on Earth slightly longer.<\/p>\n

Researchers say rising sea levels caused by melting ice are slowing the planet\u2019s rotation, stretching the length of day by tiny fractions of a second. <\/p>\n

While the change is almost impossible to feel in daily life, scientists say the rate at which it\u2019s happening is unlike anything seen in millions of years. <\/p>\n

The findings were published in the journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Research<\/a> by scientists from the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich, a public university in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Why climate change affects the length of day<\/p>\n

Earth doesn\u2019t spin at a perfectly constant speed. It\u2019s rotation can change due to several factors, the study said, including the gravitational pull of the moon and movements inside the planet. <\/p>\n

But modern climate change is now playing a role. <\/p>\n

As global temperatures rise, glaciers and polar ice sheets are melting<\/a>. That water flows into the oceans, adding to rising sea levels and redistributing mass around the planet, the study said. <\/p>\n

The study explained that when a spinning figure skater stretches their arms outward, their spin slows down. Pulling their arms inward makes them spin faster. <\/p>\n

Earth behaves in a similar way when mass moves outward \u2014 in this case from ice sheets to oceans \u2014 the planet\u2019s rotation slows, according to the study. <\/p>\n

Between 2000 to 2020, scientists estimate the length of a day increased at a rate of 1.33 milliseconds per century, due to climate-related changes. <\/p>\n

Scientists look back millions of years <\/p>\n

To understand whether this kind of change has happened before, researchers examined fossil evidence going back 3.6 million years. <\/p>\n

They used the remains of tiny marine organisms called benthic foraminifera, single-celled creatures that live on the ocean floor.<\/p>\n

The study said their shells preserve chemical clues about past ocean conditions. By studying those chemical signatures, scientists can estimate ancient sea levels. <\/p>\n

From those sea-level changes, the team was able to calculate how Earth\u2019s rotation likely changed over time. <\/p>\n

To analyze the complex data, the researchers also used a physics-informed, deep-learning model, a type of artificial intelligence that incorporates known physical laws to better interpret uncertain climate records. <\/p>\n

Where today ranks in Earth\u2019s history<\/p>\n

The analysis shows that natural cycles of ice growth and melting during the past 2.6 million years \u2014 a period known as the Quaternary \u2014 did cause day-length changes in the past. <\/p>\n

However, the modern rate of change is unusually fast. <\/p>\n

The changes themselves are extremely small \u2014 just milliseconds, the study suggested. <\/p>\n

But even tiny shifts in the Earth\u2019s rotation matter for technologies that rely on extremely precise timing. For example, systems used in space navigation, satellite tracking and astronomical measurements must account for small variations in how fast Earth spins.<\/p>\n

Researchers said that by the end of this century, climate change could influence the planet\u2019s rotation more strongly than the moon, which has historically been the main factor in slowing Earth\u2019s spin over long periods. <\/p>\n

According to the study, this research is one of the first to connect ancient climate records with modern changes in Earth\u2019s rotation. <\/p>\n

Even if the difference is measured in milliseconds, scientists say it\u2019s another signal of how profoundly the planet\u2019s climate system is shifting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study suggests climate change is doing something few people would ever notice: it\u2019s making the days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[712,49,48,66],"class_list":["post-538198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}