The Facts

• According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, mass redistribution due to rising sea levels caused by the melting of the polar ice caps is changing the length of a day on Earth.

• The length of day, the time it takes for the planet to rotate on its axis, is about 86.4K seconds long. The study found an acceleration in the change of the day's length from 0.3-1.0 milliseconds per century during the 20th century to 1.33 ± 0.03 milliseconds per century since 2000.

• The study suggests that Earth's movements — primarily determined by natural forces like the moon's pull — are now also regulated by human-driven global warming, which has allegedly accelerated the melting of ice sheets.