Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth

[JudynTX]

:wow


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).


The Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis, which it spins around once every day at a speed of about 1,000 mph (1,604 kph).


The figure axis is the axis around which the Earth's mass is balanced. It is offset from the Earth's north-south axis by about 33 feet (10 meters).


Strong earthquakes have altered Earth's days and its axis in the past. The 9.1 Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, should have shortened Earth's days by 6.8 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 2.76 inches (7 cm, or 2.32 milliarcseconds).


One Earth day is about 24 hours long. Over the course of a year, the length of a day normally changes gradually by one millisecond. It increases in the winter, when the Earth rotates more slowly, and decreases in the summer, Gross has said in the past.


The Chile earthquake was much smaller than the Sumatran temblor, but its effects on the Earth are larger because of its location. Its epicenter was located in the Earth's mid-latitudes rather than near the equator like the Sumatran event.


The fault responsible for the 2010 Chile quake also slices through Earth at a steeper angle than the Sumatran quake's fault, NASA scientists said.


"This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth's mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis," NASA officials said.


Gross said his findings are based on early data available on the Chile earthquake. As more information about its characteristics are revealed, his prediction of its effects will likely change.


The Chile earthquake has killed more than 700 people and caused widespread devastation in the South American country.


Several major telescopes in Chile's Atacama Desert have escaped damage, according to the European Southern Observatory managing them.


A salt-measuring NASA satellite instrument destined to be installed on an Argentinean satellite was also undamaged in the earthquake, JPL officials said.


The Aquarius instrument was in the city of Bariloche, Argentina, where it is being installed in the Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC-D) satellite. The satellite integration facility is about 365 miles (588 km) from the Chile quake's epicenter.


The Aquarius instrument is designed to provide monthly global maps of the ocean's salt concentration in order to track current circulation and its role in climate change.

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

[biological clock]

That's just great. :bang

[JudynTX]

That's just great. :bang

:lol :lol You better hurry up!

[Cry Havoc]

As the OP stated, the same thing happened when the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake hit Sumatra.


The energy released on the Earth's surface only, ME which is the seismic potential for damage, by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was estimated at 1.1×1017 joules[23] or 26.3 megatons of TNT. This energy is equivalent to over 1502 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, but less than that of Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated. However, this is but a tiny fraction of the total work done MW (and thus energy) by this quake, 4.0×1029 ergs (40 ZJ),[24] the vast majority underground. This equates to 4.0×1022 J, over 363,000 times more than its ME. This is a truly enormous figure, equivalent to 9,560 gigatons of TNT equivalent (550 million times that of Hiroshima), or about 370 years of energy use in the United States at 2005 levels of 1.08×1020 J.

The only recorded earthquakes with a larger MW were the 1960 Chilean and 1964 Alaskan quakes, with 2.5×1023 joules (250 ZJ) and 7.5×1022 joules (75 ZJ) respectively.[25]

The earthquake generated a seismic oscillation of the Earth's surface of up to 20–30 cm (8–12 in), equivalent to the effect of the tidal forces caused by the Sun and Moon. The shock waves of the earthquake were felt across the planet; as far away as the U.S. state of Oklahoma, where vertical movements of 3 mm (0.12 in) were recorded. By February 2005, the earthquake's effects were still detectable as a 0.02 mm complex harmonic oscillation of the Earth's surface, which gradually diminished and merged with the incessant free oscillation of the Earth more than 4 months after the earthquake.[26]

Because of its enormous energy release and shallow rupture depth, the earthquake generated remarkable seismic ground motions around the globe, particularly due to huge Rayleigh (surface) elastic waves that exceeded 1 cm in vertical amplitude everywhere on Earth. The record section plot below displays vertical displacements of the Earth's surface recorded by seismometers from the IRIS/USGS Global Seismographic Network plotted with respect to time (since the earthquake initiation) on the horizontal axis, and vertical displacements of the Earth on the vertical axis (note the 1 cm scale bar at the bottom for scale). The seismograms are arranged vertically by distance from the epicenter in degrees. The earliest, lower amplitude, signal is that of the compressional (P) wave, which takes about 22 minutes to reach the other side of the planet (the antipode; in this case near Ecuador). The largest amplitude signals are seismic surface waves that reach the antipode after about 100 minutes. The surface waves can be clearly seen to reinforce near the antipode (with the closest seismic stations in Ecuador), and to subsequently encircle the planet to return to the epicentral region after about 200 minutes. A major aftershock (magnitude 7.1) can be seen at the closest stations starting just after the 200 minute mark. This aftershock would be considered a major earthquake under ordinary circumstances, but is dwarfed by the mainshock.

The shift of mass and the massive release of energy very slightly altered the Earth's rotation. The exact amount is not yet known, but theoretical models suggest the earthquake shortened the length of a day by 2.68 microseconds, due to a decrease in the oblateness of the Earth.[27] It also caused the Earth to minutely "wobble" on its axis by up to 2.5 cm (1 in) in the direction of 145° east longitude,[28] or perhaps by up to 5 or 6 cm (2.0 to 2.4 in).[29] However, because of tidal effects of the Moon, the length of a day increases at an average of 15 µs per year, so any rotational change due to the earthquake will be lost quickly. Similarly, the natural Chandler wobble of the Earth, which in some cases can be up to 15 m (50 ft), will eventually offset the minor wobble produced by the earthquake.

More spectacularly, there was 10 m (33 ft) movement laterally and 4–5 m (13–16 ft) vertically along the fault line. Early speculation was that some of the smaller islands south-west of Sumatra, which is on the Burma Plate (the southern regions are on the Sunda Plate), might have moved south-west by up to 36 m (118 ft), but more accurate data released more than a month after the earthquake found the movement to be about 20 cm (7.9 in).[30] Since movement was vertical as well as lateral, some coastal areas may have been moved to below sea level. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands appear to have shifted south-west by around 1.25 m (4.1 ft) and to have sunk by 1 m (3.28 ft).[31]

In February 2005, the Royal Navy vessel HMS Scott surveyed the seabed around the earthquake zone, which varies in depth between 1,000 m and 5,000 m (3,300 ft and 16,500 ft). The survey, conducted using a high-resolution, multi-beam sonar system, revealed that the earthquake had made a huge impact on the topography of the seabed. 1,500-meter (5,000 ft) high thrust ridges created by previous geologic activity along the fault had collapsed, generating landslides several kilometers wide. One such landslide consisted of a single block of rock some 100 m high and 2 km long (300 ft by 1.25 mi). The momentum of the water displaced by tectonic uplift had also dragged massive slabs of rock, each weighing millions of tons, as far as 10 km (7 mi) across the seabed. An oceanic trench several kilometres wide was exposed in the earthquake zone.[32]

The TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason 1 satellites happened to pass over the tsunami as it was crossing the ocean.[33] These satellites carry radars that measure precisely the height of the water surface; anomalies of the order of 50 cm (20 in) were measured. Measurements from these satellites may prove invaluable for the understanding of the earthquake and tsunami.[34] Unlike data from tide gauges installed on shores, measurements obtained in the middle of the ocean can be used for computing the parameters of the source earthquake without having to compensate for the complex ways in which close proximity to the coast changes the size and shape of a wave.

Yeah, it's a wall of text, but it's pretty fascinating.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

[PM5K]

Oh great, 1.26 milliseconds less sleep tonight.

[CubanMustGo]

Kind of like daylight savings time only you never get to fall back?

[Drachen]

So would an earthquake of that size in the N. Hemisphere give us longer days?

[Wild Cobra]

Oh great, 1.26 milliseconds less sleep tonight.
No kidding.

I was thinking similar. Shit, I don't have enough time each day as it is.

[Cry Havoc]

So would an earthquake of that size in the N. Hemisphere give us longer days?

It depends.

If the majority of the material in the earthquake shifts downward, toward the center of the Earth, no, it will still shorten our days. If it's moved up, then yes, the day would be extended slightly.

[tlongII]

I wonder what this is going to do to Global Warming?

[Ignignokt]

sup faggots

[The Reckoning]

media desperately trying to find a way to paint the earthquake as world-ending

[IronMexican]

What does this mean to the whole 2012 thing? Is the word going to end in 2013 since the days are a little shorter, therefore possibly pushing it back?

[lefty]

What does this mean to the whole 2012 thing? Is the word going to end in 2013 since the days are a little shorter, therefore possibly pushing it back?
They are already working on a new blockbuster movie:

2012 +- 1.26 milliseconds

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Fascinating stuff. However, this makes no sense:


It increases in the winter, when the Earth rotates more slowly, and decreases in the summer, Gross has said in the past.

For which winter does the earth rotate more slowly and why? Looks to me like the reporter misinterpreted something here.

[MB20]

Over 700 deaths confirmed so far.
17.000 soldiers in the streets.
Billions of $$ in damages.

I don´t give a fuck about 1.26 milliseconds, really.

[Dex]

http://swarthmoreasianorganization.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/end.jpg

[Wild Cobra]

Over 700 deaths confirmed so far.
17.000 soldiers in the streets.
Billions of $$ in damages.

I don´t give a fuck about 1.26 milliseconds, really.
Still, from the time of the earthquake, to the winter solstice of 2012, that changes the timing by 1.295 seconds.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

I wonder what this is going to do to Global Warming?

I was wondering the same thing. What effects will it have on el niño or whatever? Isn't that in the pacific? Will it push it back out and prolong it?