How Ocean Tides Affect Earth's Rotation
2025-04-18
This article explores the dual impact of tides on Earth's rotation. In the long term, tidal friction causes a gradual slowing of Earth's rotation, increasing the length of a day by about 2.3 milliseconds per century, necessitating the periodic addition of leap seconds. Short-term, the cyclical movement of tides induces rapid, minute changes in Earth's rotation rate, matching the tidal periods and predictable via global tidal models. Both effects relate to ocean friction, changes in the moment of inertia, and angular momentum exchange.
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