Author Topic: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis  (Read 9302 times)

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Offline Skadi

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Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« on: March 03, 2010, 08:57:15 AM »
Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
March 2, 2010 7:45 p.m. EST


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Each day should be 1.26 microseconds shorter, according to preliminary calculations

A large quake alters the distribution of mass on the planet

Length of days was shorted by 6.8 microseconds after tsunami of 2004


(CNN) -- The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted 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 Earth.


He determined that the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis about 3 inches (8 centimeters). The figure axis is one around which Earth's mass is balanced. That shift in axis is what may have shortened days.

Such changes aren't unheard of.

The magnitude 9.1 earthquake in 2004 that generated a killer tsunami in the Indian Ocean shortened the length of days by 6.8 microseconds.

On the other hand, the length of a day also can increase. For example, if the Three Gorges reservoir in China were filled, it would hold 10 trillion gallons (40 cubic kilometers) of water. The shift of mass would lengthen days by 0.06 microsecond, scientists said.



http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/02/chile.quake/index.html

Offline townie2

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2010, 06:59:44 PM »
since then there has been earthquakes in Taiwan, and last night, Turkey. maybe Chile did tip the scale

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2010, 06:22:30 AM »
could be

Offline redlandslide

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2010, 06:27:52 AM »
since then there has been earthquakes in Taiwan, and last night, Turkey. maybe Chile did tip the scale

And Sandra Bullock won the best actress oscar. All kind of weird poo is going on.

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2010, 08:22:40 AM »
*snorts*

Plus.. there's always 2012 to look forward to :P

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2010, 08:27:48 AM »
..and, I can use it as an excuse to be late to work :D

aww.. snap,,I didn't reset my clock with the earth's new axis alignment. sorry 8)

Offline AlienBC

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2010, 09:11:18 AM »
there is no constant in time so you could say time just got a little more fcuked up  :-\

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2010, 10:03:11 AM »
That's an even better, more obtuse excuse :P

Offline Geemonster

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2010, 10:31:38 AM »
Why can't we have suicide booths like in Futurama? ;D
« Last Edit: March 09, 2010, 10:33:31 AM by Geemonster »

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #9 on: March 09, 2010, 10:57:53 AM »
That would be too convenient >_<

The Xmas claus always scares me too :D

Offline Geemonster

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #10 on: March 09, 2010, 11:03:21 AM »
They'd make a poo load of cash.

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2010, 11:04:20 AM »
LOL.. no!! it would be terrible :P

Offline dweez

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #12 on: March 09, 2010, 11:06:45 AM »
It didn't work so well for Bender anyway.
--dweez

Offline Geemonster

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2010, 04:14:00 PM »
It didn't work so well for Bender anyway.

"Quick & painless,or slow & horrible"?  ;D

Offline townie2

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #14 on: March 18, 2010, 06:47:01 PM »
^ none of the above  ;D

Offline Geemonster

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #15 on: March 19, 2010, 01:45:00 AM »
Hi townie. :)

Offline Methiah

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #16 on: March 22, 2010, 02:19:47 PM »
Put it into context. The Earth has been slowing down on average. The Earth is spinning with a longer period by ~2ms than it was in the early 19th century, the slowing (due to mostly tidal effects) is three orders of magnitude greater than the mitigating effects of recent geological events of Chile or of the Indian ocean 2004 say.


Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #17 on: March 22, 2010, 02:36:37 PM »
Putting things in perspective is no fun though. It's more fun to act irrational and sensationally exploit the idea :D

Offline subvinorosa

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #18 on: March 28, 2010, 05:57:21 AM »
If only it tilted things to work in my favor...

Offline townie2

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #19 on: March 30, 2010, 02:20:47 PM »
whoops. hi Gee  ;D

Offline Geemonster

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #20 on: March 30, 2010, 04:16:15 PM »
One can only hope.

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #21 on: March 30, 2010, 04:23:24 PM »
If only it tilted things to work in my favor...

LMFAO! that would be neat :)

Although.. I think you live on the opposite side of the world then me, so it would work against me. I'd get all the doom, and bad luck, loose crumbs, dust bunnies, and jingly loose nominal pocket change :D

Offline subvinorosa

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #22 on: March 30, 2010, 09:02:42 PM »
Put in that perspective....

You could always move where I was. ;D

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #23 on: March 31, 2010, 11:26:06 AM »
 :o

I couldn't do that. I love where I live. It would take something monumental happening to me for me to move :P

I know Methiah is right, and it's standard for things like the shift to happen. I'm quite sure it hasn't effected me greatly ::)

Offline subvinorosa

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #24 on: April 01, 2010, 01:27:34 AM »
Would everything going your way be monumental enough? ;D

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #25 on: April 01, 2010, 06:25:06 AM »
I don't think anyone gets everything. Plus, my priorites in life are much more simple then 'everything'. So monumental would be something simple. Which luckily .. I assume.. I can find where I live now.

Offline Geemonster

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #26 on: April 02, 2010, 08:17:50 AM »
Like end of the world weather,that'd be enough right?

Offline Skadi

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #27 on: April 02, 2010, 08:19:41 AM »
>_<

I'm reading 'The Road' right now. So, that's poignant.

Offline Robin-Graves

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #28 on: April 23, 2010, 11:40:38 AM »
I think we have taken enough out of perspective and ran wild with it ( Al Gore, movies like The Day After tomarow, 2012 , the band REM etc.)
I keep my standards low.
That way im never disapointed.

Offline Geemonster

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Re: Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis
« Reply #29 on: April 24, 2010, 09:53:19 AM »
One can only hope. :D