A faster spinning Earth may cause timekeepers to subtract a second from world clocks [View all]
Earths changing spin is threatening to toy with our sense of time, clocks and computerized society in an unprecedented way but only for a second.
For the first time in history, world timekeepers may have to consider subtracting a second from our clocks in a few years because the planet is rotating a tad faster than it used to. Clocks may have to skip a second called a negative leap second around 2029, a study in the journal Nature said Wednesday.
This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal, said study lead author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Its not a huge change in the Earths rotation thats going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. Its yet another indication that were in a very unusual time.
Ice melting at both of Earths poles has been counteracting the planets burst of speed and is likely to have delayed this global second of reckoning by about three years, Agnew said.
https://apnews.com/article/leap-second-subtract-melting-ice-clocks-74eaac47b9c429910723a604897032a4