According to the reports published, Earth is gradually stepping up to spin faster and has recently broken the record of the “shortest day ever recorded” on June 29th. The earth completed its spin 1.59 milliseconds earlier than usual, and people were wondering whether it would have any impact on their daily operations. Definitely not. Although the impact is quite unnoticeable, there are certain concerns among experts as to what circumstances are causing changes to its spinning motion.
The standard day consists of 24 hours in which the Earth completes its rotation so that “the Sun appears in the same location in the sky.” But do you know that there is also a day called “sidereal day” which consists of 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.091 seconds “in which the Earth completes one complete rotation around its axis with respect to the stars.” Hence, through these considerations, we can actually calculate the “speed” at which the Earth is spinning.
The data which is needed for this calculation is the circumference of the Earth, which is about 24,901 miles, and then we will divide it by the daytime (length of the day). This will give us the exact speed of the Earth’s spin, which accounts for up to 1038 miles per hour (1670 kph). However, it is interesting to note that as you start moving towards the poles, the Earth’s circumference starts decreasing and the speed of Earth’s spin is slowest at both poles.
If we look at the recent trends, we will get to know that there is a certain pattern in Earth’s spinning, It has been reported that in 2020, around 28 days have been regarded as the shortest days since 1960, but then again in 2021, the shortest day recorded was somewhat longer than that recorded in 2020. As of now, on June 29, 2022, we were expecting that it might be the fastest day ever recorded, but you would be amazed to know that July 26, 2022, has broken the record of all the previous days. The day ended 1.50 milliseconds earlier than usual.
Now, coming to the most important point, i.e., the major causes of this occurrence. Although experts have not yet explored the specific information that relates to the Earth’s spin, there are some theories through which we can make a guess about the situation. It has been said that the glaciers are melting from the poles of the Earth, which causes less weight there. Moreover, the seismic activity could be the prominent cause of this event. Not only this, some theories suggest that “Chandler wobble” might be the phenomenon behind this bizarre occurrence.
In short, there are a lot of shreds of evidence that support the faster spinning of the Earth, but have you noticed the day ending earlier? Probably not, because the occurrence is unnoticeable, but in the future, we might witness these changing conditions.
