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World’s Largest Dams and Their Impact on Earth’s Rotation

World's Largest Dams and Their Impact on Earth's Rotation

Most of the dams are built to generate hydroelectricity or hydropower, which is a renewable source of energy. But what might be useful is, how it affects the land and how it affects the Earth’s rotation.

Here is the answer to these kinds of questions:

What is hydroelectricity?

In simple words, hydropower means the power that is generated by the movement or flow of water that converts potential energy into mechanical energy.

Hydroelectricity is mostly generated in dams on hillsides where water falls from high points or due to high gravity the falling water generates turbines which help drive generators to rotate and convert the mechanical energy of turbines into electricity. It is a renewable source of energy. Many large dams have been built in the world to generate hydroelectricity so that it can be supplied around the world.

How do big dams cause to slow down the earth’s rotation and cause an earthquake?

According to Dr.V.P. Jauhari in his “Reservoir-Induced Seismicity” “The most widely accepted explanation of how dams cause earthquakes is related to the extra water pressure created in the micro-cracks and fissures in the ground and near a reservoir.”

Too much stagnant water an affect cause a “Moment of Inertia” Due to the large amount of water being held back through the barrier, where the speed of the earth is reduced while orbiting this moment is mostly caused by the planet’s massive amount of flowing water. 

According to NASA, The dam slows down the Earth’s rotation by 0.06 microseconds. It also affects the position of the moon, which also causes earthquakes and climate change.

How dam is harmful?

Large dams cause floods in the rainy season causing loss of aquatic animals, large-scale loss of forest due to flood plains, soil erosion of coastal deltas, and other natural disasters.

These are the largest Dam in the World:

Three Gorges Dam, China

This dam is the world’s largest hydroelectricity dam. It is constructed on the Yangtze River. It is completed by 2006 and operational by 2012. The power installed capacity of this dam is 22,500MW.

Baihetan Dam, China

It is the second-largest hydropower dam in the world. it is constructed in the Jinsha River. This dam comes in the world’s ” largest clean energy corridor”. The power generating capacity of this dam is 16,000MW.

Itaipu Dam, Brazil

This dam comes between Brazil and Paraguay. It is constructed on the Parana River and is the third-largest dam in the world which generates hydropower. The installed capacity of this dam is 14 GW (19,000,000 hp).

 Xiluodu Dam, China

This dam is also in China and was constructed on the same Jinsha River. It is the fourth-largest dam in the world. Its installed capacity of the station is 13,860MW.

It is also the fifth tallest dam in the world.

Belo Monte Dam, Brazil

This dam was constructed on the Xingu River in the state of Pará, Brazil. It is the fifth largest dam in the world with an installed capacity of 11,233MW. It plays the most important role in the Growth of Brazil, so the government also decided to make another hydropower dam to produce more electricity.

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