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NASA: Quake Shifted Earth's Axis, Shortened Day

AOL News ^ | March 1, 2010 | David Knowles

Posted on by greatdefender

(March 1) -- Apart from claiming the lives of hundreds of people and wreaking enormous property damage, Chile's massive earthquake has likely altered the distribution of the Earth's overall mass, scientists from NASA say.

As a result, the length of a day is now a little shorter than it was before Saturday's magnitude 8.8 earthquake.

"The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds [millionths of a second]," Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Bloomberg. "The axis about which the Earth's mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds [about 8 centimeters or 3 inches]."

The speed that the Earth rotates also increased slightly in 2004 following the earthquake that struck off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. That 9.1 earthquake shortened the length of an Earth day by 6.8 microseconds, scientists say.

The reason is that sudden changes in the dimensions of the Earth's tectonic plates, like those experienced in the earthquakes in Chile and Indonesia, can alter the velocity.

David Kerridge, the head of Earth hazards and systems at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, likened the change in rotation speed to what happens when a figure skater draws her arms in close to her body while spinning. "As she pulls her arms in," Kerridge told Bloomberg, "she gets faster and faster. It's the same idea with the Earth going around: If you change the distribution of mass, the rotation rate changes."



TOPICS:

Education

Science

Weird Stuff

KEYWORDS:

axis

catastrophism

chilequake

nasa

space





To: greatdefender

The earth’s rotation currently slows at a rate of 1.4 milliseconds/century, so this quake and the Sumatra quake have erased a couple of years’ worth of frictional slowing.



To: Little Pig

"...so this quake and the Sumatra quake have erased a couple of years worth of frictional slowing..." So let me know when we need to add a February 30th.



To: greatdefender

Now how am I gonna get all my work done?



To: greatdefender

Is this theoretical or empirical data? I'm guessing theoretical. If an earth quake can accelerate the rotation with a certain movement or change in placement of mass, isn't it equally likely to slow the rotation with an opposing change from a different shift in tectonics? And how the heck does NASA measure this change so deep inside earth's crust? I'm a bit skeptical. Is GPS satellite data precise to the microsecond? I don't think so.



To: greatdefender

watch the UN and Obama will now say that if Global Climate Change Provisions willnot pass the world will come to an end. See the days are getting shorter because man caused the earthquake in Chile. They will say it was a man caused disaster. The same strategy for Universal Health care. better known as the New World Oreder one World Government



by 6 posted onby hondact200 (hondact200 No to Socialism - Michigan destroyed by Progressive Liberal Populism)

To: greatdefender

Maybe this Mayan thing isn’t so crazy.



To: greatdefender

earthquake has likely altered no proof as always....has likely...is a guess but is it educated?



by 8 posted onby Freddd (CNN is down to Three Hundred Thousand viewers. But they worked for it.)

To: greatdefender

Maybe, but was this expected?



by 9 posted onby An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)

To: greatdefender

I thought it was getting darker earlier.



To: skimbell

Assuming the earth continues to slow at the current rate, we will need to add a full day around the year 5,760,002,010 (give or take a few years).



To: greatdefender

“Likely” means a guess... or is this contrived and false science... like the ipcc practices. I hate BS and science has become a huge stinking pile. LLS



by 12 posted onby LibLieSlayer (hussama will never be my president... NEVER!)

To: greatdefender

Maybe they could get Mike Moore to move to Europe to balnace things out....



by 13 posted onby ASOC (In case of attack, tune to 640 kilocycles or 1240 kilocycles on your AM dial.)

To: Little Pig

Fascinating! I’m sure it hasn’t been a linear slow-down, but if it had been been then the Earth’s day would have been nearly 20 minutes shorter 4.5 billion years ago.



To: downtownconservative

I think they measure the rotation against the fixed stars. It wouldn’t be hard to get it to below microsecond precision.



To: An.American.Expatriate

Amo 8:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: Isa 24:1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down... Luk 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

Luk 21:26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. Isa 24:20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. Isa 13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.



To: greatdefender

I THOUGHT I felt more tired than usual when I got up this morning. Is there anybody I can sue?



To: agere_contra

It isn’t linear. That long ago, the earth’s day was actually less than 12 hours (closer to 7 hours).



To: greatdefender

Please tell me that it was the work part of the day that was shortened!!!



by 19 posted onby SoldierDad (Proud Papa of two new Army Brats! Congrats to my Soldier son and his wife.)

To: greatdefender

that’s definitely caused by man made global warming...



by 20 posted onby RaceBannon (RON PAUL: THE PARTY OF TRUTHERS AND TRAITORS!!!)

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