earthquake changed earth's axis

[ensho]

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

[goclark]

1. K

[Bobbie Jo]

2. Damn.

On a totally unrelated note....the first comment :rofl:

[MineralMan]

3. Oh, crap. The Earth will go spinning through space.

The howwow!

[bdamomma]

4. what could I have done in that 1.26 millisecond?

shortened an Earth day too.

[tridim]

5. Doesn't the Earth's axis change constantly?

I'd guess that the Earth shifts its center of mass millions of times every day.

[xfundy]

8. Only when OxyRush goes on a trip

to find some boys to play with.

[NM_hemilover]

9. swing and a miss,

[YOY]

6. 27 milliarcseconds...what a change.

Yeah...sure...talk about an vague title/headline.

[madokie]

7. Thank about that a little bit

Ponder on it some. If an earthquake can cause this would it not also be possible for one big quake to set up another and another until the world is all askew, where what used to be north is now east or west or south? Slow us down where we move farther from the sun? Who knows what has happened in the past because we, here in Oklahoma are about as far from the ocean as you can get and you find what looks like sea life fossils in the chert rock that there is so much of around here. Humans whole existence up to now is but a pop to the life of this universe. amazing that.

My hope is, whether or not we ever know it, that we time travel. :-)

[comrade snarky]

18. You know where some of those questions can be answered?

Any geology textbook.

Lots of people know why there are marine fossils in the central US. So could you if you want to. Looking into it will give you answers to questions you didn't even know about.

Give it a try!

[Prism]

25. Geological activity is responsible for the marine life

Plate tectonics, which move the earth's crust around, are responsible for the continents shifting around as well. When two parts of the crust bump into each other, some of the land is lifted up. So, over millions of years, land that used to be on the sea floor can end up smack in the center of a continent. Scientists also find sea fossils on mountaintops.

The earth's rotation slowing down isn't too, too big a deal. Right now, the tidal forces at work between the earth and the moon are slowing our rotation down (just as the earth's pull slowed the moon to the point where one side of it always faces us. If this were to continue, in about 100 billion years, the earth would similarly always face the moon in this way).

Earthquakes don't really affect our orbital speed around the sun. Our orbital speed is determined by the earth's mass. Basically, a huge chunk of the earth would have to be blown off for our orbit to be in any danger. Given how massive the earth is, we could lose an entire contintent, and our orbit would still be fine. It'd have to be something cataclysmic, like a moon-sized object plowing into us and shearing off a ton of crust and mantle.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

27. No, that's not possible.

Plate tectonics does not work that way.

[Uncle Joe]

10. I wonder if the extraction of oil has an adverse effect by removing a potential lubricant

from the Earth's crust and upper mantle resulting in more abrupt movement?

Thanks for the thread, ensho.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Jesus Edward Christ.

It burns.

[Uncle Joe]

15. Thanks but you can just call me Uncle Joe, Joe or UJ.

I would also suggest meditation and relaxation exercises to relieve the burning sensation caused by too much stress and resulting in your low level tolerance for questions.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Oh, is that what you were doing, UJ? Just asking questions?

Because I could have sworn that you were going all Pat Robertson and wanting to blame some disagreeable human activity for the earthquake no matter how absurd, and your "question" was pretty much rhetorical. And then, like Robertson, you get to play the victim when confronted.

[Uncle Joe]

19. You could have answered the question in a civil manner by explaining why it wouldn't

or couldn't

It wasn't a rhetorical question.

I know you're a brilliant person, but your people skills need some serious work.

Peace.

UJ

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. Does every question that gets asked require a full answer?

No matter how ridiculously ignorant of basic science facts?

I mean, if there were young children involved, sure I can understand. But grown adults? Who were provided with a free public education?

[Uncle Joe]

22. Yes, either answer or ignore it.

People learn at different levels with various life experiences, that shouldn't be a strike against their basic curiosity or want of asking questions, if you can't or don't have the temperament to teach, don't worry about it, just don't trash them.

Pink Floyd even had a song about teachers trashing their students for asking questions, they deemed unworthy of their time and or attention.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. They also wrote songs about mentally fucked up adults.

Whole rock operas, actually.

[Uncle Joe]

28. Yes, that's true.

Peace to you.

[KamaAina]

14. If oil were found along fault lines,

all Northern Californians would be billionaires, not just Meg Whitman. :eyes:

[Uncle Joe]

17. I'm not suggesting it's the only cause, I'm just wondering whether it could have an adverse

global "Butterfly Effect"?

[Caliman73]

23. Probably not

We are talking about incredible amounts of mass and weight here as well as geological force. While the weight and presence of oil in the earth's crust may amount to a great deal of weight and volume, it would most likely have negligible impact on an event like 2 tectonic plates colliding. It would be like asking in a down comforter would lessen the impact of two semi trucks colliding at top speed.

[Uncle Joe]

26. Not just weight and pressure but as a potential lubricant.

Does oil go so far down as to be between the crust and outer mantle?

I wouldn't think a butterfly flapping it's wings would have much effect either and maybe there is nothing valid about the so called "Butterfly Effect", but if there is, I would imagine draining the planet of tens to hundreds of millions of year old oil, long buried would have some effect.

I believe we have passed Peak Oil, so humanity has definitely made an impact.

Edit to add link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

Thanks for your answer.

[ensho]

29. when strawberry farmers sucked all the water out of the ground

in an area of Fl. it caused huge sink holes.

seems reasonable that removing oil from underground would cause a different diametric too.

[Obamanaut]

11. An axis event. n/t

[KamaAina]

13. They all do

only since this was the fifth most powerful quake in recorded history (~110 years), the effect was (barely) measurable.

[comrade snarky]

20. It's happened before and it will happen again

Kinda cool that we can measure it now. That's just amazing to me.