Magnetic braking of the Earth's rotation

The Earth's rotation is decelerating at a rate of 8.8*10 exp-20 rad/s. Thus, a leap second is added to the year every two to four years. This deceleration is small, but the Earth weighs 6*10 exp 24 kg. A prony brake that achieves this deceleration would release 5.14*10 exp 11 kW, the equivalent of 514,000 1-GW nuclear power plants. Tides, volcanos, Coriolis-generated ocean currents and winds cannot absorb this much power. This leaves the induction generation which produces the Earth's magnetic field as the most likely absorber of the deceleration power. The efficiency of this inaccessible induction generator cannot be calculated. However, it is thought that correlation of the Earth's deceleration with its 0.09% weakening magnetic field could provide insight into the power generation process.<
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