The Three Gorges Dam and the Foreshadowing of Earthquakes

    It is said that the largest dam in the world potentially could have slowed the earth's rotation. Call that a myth, but the myth-checkers -- fact-checkers -- have checked it out, and it's true.

   Why this is of importance to me, is that it indicates if reservoirs behind dams can change the earth's rotation, the weight of them could also foster earthquakes.

   Six-hundred-thirty-two square (632) kilometers, is the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam in China. That's a very sizable area.  Forty-two-billion (42-billion) tons does all that water weight. That's a massive amount of weight. If, in constructing the Three Gorges Dam, you shift that much weight from one parcel of real estate to another, isn't it going to affect the seismic plates below? With that much weight bearing down on a different spot on the seismic plating -- leading to thier snapping -- it would seem it is surely going to have an effect.

   Now, the weight of all that water is also being raised. Water once closer to sea level is now higher up as it is raised by the reservoir. That means the spin of the earth is going to be affected. It is the same principle you get with a figure skater. As the skater spins, she tucks her arms in so she can spin faster. Or, a diver. He tucks his body in as he spins. The earth is the same, as it spins, if a large, heavy mass is protruding upward, it slows the spin. Thus, 42-billion ton of weight being raised upward might slow the spin of the planet. 

   The faster the planet spins, the greater the gravity and the tighter things are pressed to the core. Thus, it makes sense that the weight on the seismic plates might also possibly be affected by the slowing of the earth's spin. In addition, you must wonder if slowing the spin would result in the biosphere expanding (since things are not being pressed to the core as much), affecting the density of pollutants and the prism area the sun shines thru -- and thus global warming. I doubt the Three Gorges Dam slowed the earth enough to much impact either (seismic plates or global warming), but who knows. 

   But, still, the weight of the water -- 42 billion tons -- all being shifted, it seems that could have some impact on the seismic plates below. If that much mass might slow the earth's spin any at all, it would seem it could also be enough of significance to change the pressure on the seismic plating below.

  Earth's underground upheavals do not come all at once. Fault lines might exist for centuries before earthquakes are produced. Though it has been decades since the Three Gorges Dam was completed, do we know if the danger is behind us? The plates could be bending -- but not yet snapping -- and when they do snap, there we will have our earthquake.

  Maybe this is happening, maybe it isn't. Who knows.

 (The note below was added the morning of 12/2/20.)

Thinking more, Would the reservoir be raised enough to impact the earth's spin? I go back to the story and see the reservoir is 100 yards above the natural river level. I think of the 42-billion tons being up just 100 feet across 632 square kilometers, Would that affect the earth's rotation? And, if it would, what of the skyscrapers scattered around our big cities? They are not empty, weightless. As tall as they are, they must also, then, have an impact. It appear no single city, though, would have an impact equal to that of Three Gorges. New York City covers but 302 square miles. How much weight in the skyscrapers there? I'm guessing less than 42-billion tons.

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