By Bhanu Praveen, Karnataka State Secretary – Helping Brainz

“Powerful” doesn’t really do this amazing (and VERY controversial) structure justice. Since the $30 billion project was announced, Chinese officials have faced heavy scrutiny from both scientists and environmental activists like. Many believe that the dam will ultimately result in catastrophe. Some concerns include the dam trapping pollution, spawning earthquakes and landslides, uprooting citizens (more than 1.3 million people have already been forced to relocate), and destroying historical locations – along with the habitats of endangered animals. (The government finally conceded that the project was ill conceived – after years of dubbing the dam one of the most spectacular pieces of engineering in Chinese history – but the damage is already done.)
The last 32 generators (each capable of generating 50 MW of power) went into action at the end of July last year. The gushing water produced by the dam has enough power to generate about 22.5 million kilowatts (22,500 megawatts) of energy (the estimates vary), which is equivalent to about FIFTEEN nuclear reactors and, of course, it doesn’t cause concerns about radioactive materials being unleashed (which is a very good thing, especially after events like the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters) – so the disastrous effects can be negated by most, mainly due to the fact that it’s a clean, effective way of rendering energy for a booming population.

Wondering how this could possibly have an impact on the Earth’s rotation? Here’s a wonderful source that breaks it down further:
“Three Gorges Dam crosses the Yangtze River in Hubei province, China. It is the world’s largesthydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW when completed. When the water level is at maximum….it will flood a total area of 632 km2 of land. The reservoir will contain about 39.3 cubic km (9.43 cubic miles) of water. That water will weigh more than 39 trillion kilograms (42 billion tons).
A shift in a mass of that size will impact the rotation of the Earth due to a phenomena known as “themoment of inertia”, which is the inertia of a rigid rotating body with respect to its rotation. The moment of inertia of an object about a given axis describes how difficult it is to change its angular motion about that axis. The longer the distance of a mass to its axis of rotation, the slower it will spin. You may not know it, but you see examples of this in everyday life. For example, a figure skater attempting to spin faster will draw her arms tight to her body, and thereby reduce her moment of inertia. Similarly, a diver attempting to somersault faster will bring his body into a tucked position.
Raising 39 trillion kilograms of water 175 meters above sea level will increase the Earth’s moment of inertia, and thus slow its rotation. However, the impact will be extremely small. NASA scientists calculated the shift of such a mass will increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds, and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and more flat on the top. It will also shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch). Note that a shift in any object’s mass on the Earth relative to its axis of rotation will change its moment of inertia, although most shifts are too small to be measured (but they can be calculated).”
Source: http://theenergylibrary.com/node/11435
Not to worry, though. Earth’s rotation changes frequently, with many different variables added into the equation. First, we have the moon gradually receding from the Earth changing Earth’s rotation ever-so-slightly. Earthquakes (like the mega quake in Japan back in 2011) also help along the process (the same quake changed Earth’s rotation by 2.68 microseconds). Furthermore, every 5 years (or so), the length of the day increases and decreases by about a millisecond, or about 550 times larger than the change caused by the Japanese earthquake.
Still, this knowledge begs many interesting questions. Namely, how far is too far? Individually, these things don’t make much of a difference one-way-or-another, but together, who knows. So FQTQ readers, what are your thoughts?

For Further Reading:
“China’s Monster Three Gorges Dam Is About To Slow The Rotation Of The Earth:”
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-three-gorges-dam-really-will-slow-the-earths-rotation-2010-6#ixzz2gLFLVmuJ