Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth (and knocked the Earth off axis by 3 inches)

[onehandle]

Source: Yahoo News

The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.

The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis," NASA officials said in a Monday update.

The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues to determine the effects of the Chile earthquake effect also found that it should have moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm or 27 milliarcseconds).

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100302/sc_space/chileearthquakemayhaveshorteneddaysonearth

[aquart]

1. Which is going to do what to climate change?

[Mithreal]

3. Global warming could change Earth's tilt

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17657-global-warming-could-change-earths-tilt.html

[wtmusic]

2. I thought something felt a little weird. nt

[Ian David]

4. Use that as an excuse for being late to work. n/t

[quiet.american]

5. Lol. Best answer. nt

[glinda]

10. or to say you are older than you look

[matt819]

11. You know what they say

A millisecond here, a millisecond there. Pretty soon you're talking about some real time.

[Auggie]

6. That's awesome when you really think about it

[Occulus]

7. Wow.

How much energy was released in this quake, anyway? How much is enough to alter the rotation and axial tilt of the entire planet??

:wow:

[thereismore]

8. OK, just where is the 3 inches measured from? The Earth's axis is the axis of rotation.

As such, it travels through space with the Earth. If it changed direction, that change should be measured in degrees, not inches. I am guessing what they mean is that if you marked the North Pole with a pin, then after the earthquake the new North Pole would be 3 inched away from the pin. Did anybody make it clear where the hell the 3 inches are meant to be measured? Why don't they say that the poles moved by 3'' each? That would make sense, but this???

[TalkingDog]

9. Well, the poles are constantly moving....they meander quite a bit.

(images from google images)





So, I'm sorta with you...explain the terms.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

13. That shows the magnetic poles ...

they wander all the time. Basically due to the internal movement of the
stuff inside the earth that causes magnetism.

Don't cha just love scientific explanations?

The north and south poles, where Santa and the elfs live and vacation,
are geographic measurements.

Agreed, it should be better explained.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

27. Basically due to the internet movement...WHAT??

:silly: sometimes I need to slow down reading.

[Roland99]

12. The 9.1 Sumatran earthquake affected it even more.

http://www.uwgb.edu/DutchS/PLATETEC/RotationQk2004.HTM


Well, in terms of microseconds.

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. Aren't Magnetic North and the Earth's Axis 2 different things? n/t

[liberation]

15. Yes...

... the magnetic poles are due to the rotation of the iron core inside our planet. Rotation of magnetic elements induces currents which in turn induce electromagnetic fields (more complex than that, but just for the sake of simplicity).

The actual geographical poles are due to the axis of rotation of the earth (i.e. the spin which gives us the 24 hr day).

Geographic and magnetic poles do not coincide, among other things because of the fact that the earth actually "wobbles" during its rotation around the sun. Also our orbit is elliptic, not circular. Interactions with the solar wind and gravity. Among other things...

[mbperrin]

16. shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds!

No WONDER I can't get anything done!

:)

[Dogmudgeon]

17. We'll get that 1.26 milliseconds back with Daylight Saving Time

That's the Saturday after next: 14 March 2010.

I'm still curious about how the Sun knows to come up an hour and 1.26 ms later. Maybe it has something to do with Quantum Physics or a Poll (Paradime?) Shift.

Whaddaya think?

--d!
Yes, this has been a tongue-in-cheek post.
Honest!

[The Stranger]

18. Stop the World I want to get off.

[Ter]

19. So what did the large asteroids that hit us do?

I heard the same think after the earthquake in December 2004.

[superconnected]

20. Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth

Source: space.com

The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.

The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis," NASA officials said in a Monday update.

The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues to determine the effects of the Chile earthquake effect also found that it should have moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm or 27 milliarcseconds).

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100302/sc_space/chileearthquakemayhaveshorteneddaysonearth

[naaman fletcher]

21. neg rec for the 20th posting of this. nt.

[peoli]

22. I support shorter days on Earth.

[WriteDown]

23. I'm going to live until 200! nt

[bluedigger]

24. So I'll live longer...

So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one -- big hitter, the Lama -- long, into a ten-thousand foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga...gunga -- gunga galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consiousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

25. Positive rec cause those of us who just got home frome work

have not seen this.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

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