Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
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, Mar 02 2010 07:51 PM
3 replies to this topic
#1 Guest_
Posted 02 March 2010 - 07:51 PM
(CNN) -- The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted the Earth's axis and created shorter days, scientists at NASA say.
The change is negligible, but permanent: Each day should be 1.26 microseconds shorter, according to preliminary calculations. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.
A large quake shifts massive amounts of rock and alters the distribution of mass on the planet.
When that distribution changes, it changes the rate at which the planet rotates. And the rotation rate determines the length of a day.
"Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation," Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said while explaining the phenomenon in 2005.
Scientists use the analogy of a skater. When he pulls in his arms, he spins faster.
That's because pulling in his arms changes the distribution of the skater's mass and therefore the speed of his rotation.
Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, used a computer model to determine how the magnitude 8.8 quake that struck Chile on February 27 may have affected the Earth.
CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/ ... tml?hpt=T2
#2 Guest_
Posted 06 March 2010 - 10:17 AM
Romnia be prepared for earth quake, can happening soon and they said will be hard one, >7.5.
The 2 bigs earth quake was in:
1940 - 7.4 Richter
1977 - 7.3 Richter
So like you can see these 2 bigs earth quakes was at 37 years distance, they said at this distance between 30 - 40 years can be very possbile for another one , sad but true.
Also there are "time for earth quakes" like now in this period we all see at TV everyday, so... shit a em scared.
The 2 bigs earth quake was in:
1940 - 7.4 Richter
1977 - 7.3 Richter
So like you can see these 2 bigs earth quakes was at 37 years distance, they said at this distance between 30 - 40 years can be very possbile for another one , sad but true.
Also there are "time for earth quakes" like now in this period we all see at TV everyday, so... shit a em scared.
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