True Polar Wander Driven by Artificial Water Impoundment: 1835–2011

Abstract Artificial water impoundment contributed significantly to global mean sea level change during the 20th century and is included in recent studies of the budget of 20th century true polar wander (TPW). We adopt a recent global database of water impoundment that accounts for 72% of an integrated global volume estimate and compute the associated TPW path from 1835 to 2011 CE. We find a highly non‐monotonic pole path, with an integrated path length of 113.4 cm, a net displacement of 20.5 cm in the direction 103.4°E from 1835 to 1954 CE and 57.1 cm in the direction −117.5°E from 1954 to 2011. Across the first half of the 20th century, the mean rate of TPW was 0.30 cm/yr, while in the second half of the century it was 0.95 cm/yr. Finally, we demonstrate that the 28% of the total global water impoundment missing in our database likely had a negligible impact on polar motion.