Earthquakes and Tsunamis

[Terri]

         Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth

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) . From: Space.com. (Ed. Note: Geez! That means less time to enjoy sailing!).

[Terri]

wow..that sounds cool! stuff is always shifting..but seems more so now. heard that chile's shook the earth so bad that we're losing 1 millisecond a day ?? or something like that. Yikes..less sailing time. does that mean we get older faster??? will really suck then..lol

[Terri]

And blew the dinosaurs to smithereens. Something like the force of 100,000,000 megatons of TNT. Bet it did alter the length of a day.