Chilean Earthquake Shifted Earth’s Poles

By Queuebot in Science & Tech on Mar 2, 2010 at 1:30 pm

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile apparently had some profound effects on this giant spinning rock we live on. NASA calculated that the figure axis, along which Earth’s mass is balanced, shifted by about eight centimeters.

Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth’s axis. Gross calculates the quake should have moved Earth’s figure axis (the axis about which Earth’s mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet).

It also disrupted the Earth’s rotation, shortening each day by 1.26 microseconds. No worries, though, because at that rate we shouldn’t notice any real effects for a while, but in 500 (edit by Alex 3/3/10 – more like 25 million) years or so, sunrise will be around 10:30 PM. Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by dmsheldon87.


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  1. Mika
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    1.26 microseconds per day. Over 500 years, that’s 0.2 seconds.

  3. DanG
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    Yeah…it may have been sarcastic, but it’s pretty misleading for someone who didn’t do the calculation themselves quickly. It won’t significantly affect the light/dark cycle of the day for hundreds of thousands to millions of years.

  4. zavatone
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    I felt there was a disturbance in the force today.

  5. Alex
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 2:29 pm

    8.8! Since the scale is logarithmic, it’s almost two orders of magnitude greater than the Haiti one!

  6. Another David
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    Mika, I’m the author and I just noticed that you are totally right! I wasn’t paying attention to my decimal places at all. /facepalm

  7. Mika
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    @David: np :)

    @Alex: that’s right. Now imagine how violent was the one that happened in 1960, at 9.5. I also wonder how the planet was affected at that time.

  8. Matthew
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    It will take about 7.8 million years for the time to roll back 1 hour.

    This isn’t actually what happens, though. The Earth goes through a lot more than just a slowing of rotation. The precession, obliquity, and tilt change much faster than that.

  9. Key
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    The earth wobbles on it’s axis all the time. :)

  10. Hal (GT)
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    I heard this today and thought someone was joshing me. WOW. Pretty amazing to consider. Just makes me think that we are incredibly blessed on this planet in the face of how powerful mother nature is.

  11. Yofi
    Mar 2nd, 2010 at 10:34 pm

    Either way, it’s no biggie if days get a tiny bit longer, because we are already using leap seconds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second) to keep them from shifting throughout the years.

  12. bawbag
    Mar 3rd, 2010 at 6:47 am

    at least amend the article.

    10.30 sunrise is all i’ll remember in a few days time.

    thanks for putting more shite into my brain, doofus.

  13. Kate Delaney
    Mar 3rd, 2010 at 7:41 am

    For someone who is not really good in math, the initial facts are pretty striking. However, I felt far better after reading the computations. Good work guys :> the fact is, the earthquake did shorten the day… a little bit.

  14. lemish
    Mar 3rd, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    Seriously. Edit.

  15. m
    Mar 3rd, 2010 at 6:56 pm

    I must disagree, I’m a Pole and I wasn’t shifted by the earthquake. ;)

  16. Vidium
    Mar 3rd, 2010 at 10:08 pm

    Search up H.A.A.R.P. on Google or youtube. There have been some stuff about HAARP, an program conducted by the US Government is testing this stuff. They say HAARP is the blame for this, it creates activity that can change weather and etc. Theres a lot of information about it and controversies. I strongly believe that HAARP has been causing all these disaster. I can be proved wrong but everyone can believe what they believe.


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