Melting of glaciers¹ near the Earth's poles and the resulting rise in sea level is slowing down the Earth's rotation², thereby³ increasing the length of our days, a new study suggests.

最新的研究称，地球两极附近的冰川融化以及由此引起的海平面上升，减缓了地球自转的速度，进而增加了一天的时长。

Scientists are studying past changes in sea level in order to make accurate future predictions of the consequence⁴ of climate change, and they are looking down to Earth's core to do so.

为了准确预测未来气候变化的结果，科学家正在研究过去海平面的变化，他们准备通过观察地核来进行这项研究。

"In order to understand the sea-level change that has occurred in the past century, we need to understand the dynamics⁵ of the flow in Earth's core," said Mathieu Dumberry, a professor in physics. The connection is through the change in the speed of Earth's rotation.

物理学教授马修·大木博瑞说：“为了弄清楚过去一个世纪海平面发生的变化，我们需要了解地核中的流动力学。”我们发现了地球自转速度的改变，它们之间存在关联。

Melting water from glaciers not only causes sea-level rise, but also shifts mass from the pole to the equator. The gravity pull from the Moon also contributes to the slow down. As a consequence, the length of our days is slowly increasing. In fact, a century from now, the length of a day will increase by 1.7 milliseconds, researchers said.

冰川融化不仅引起了海平面上升，而且把地球质量从极点转移到了赤道。来自月球的引力同样促成了地球自转速度的降低。因此，我们一天的长度正在逐渐变长。研究者称，事实上，一个世纪以后，一天的长度将增加1.7微秒。