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NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth
Cuyamaca writes "
NASA
scientists, using data from the Indonesian earthquake
calculated it affected Earth's rotation, decreased the
length of day, slightly changed the planet's shape, and
shifted the North Pole by centimeters. The earthquake that
created the huge tsunami also changed the Earth's rotation." You now have 2.68 fewer microseconds each day to do whatever it is you do.
Is this change big enough to update the atomic clocks? I think this quake really puts things into perspective - the Earth (and "24 hours in a day") isn't as set in stone as people think it is. (Pun intended?) And who knew the poles could move?
If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!
NASA scientists, using data from the Indonesian earthquake calculated it affected Earth's rotation, decreased the length of day, slightly changed the planet's shape, and shifted the North Pole by centimeters. The earthquake that created the huge tsunami also changed the Earth's rotation.
What exactly do you editors do besides add pointless side comments? Evidently not editing.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
I like this quote, which underscores the lack of newsworthiness of this, "Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation, from seasonal weather down to driving a car." So, using that fancy scientific notation to represent all the zeroes between my numbers and the decimal point, I can compute the change in rotation and pole location caused by my commute this morning. Call the newspapers!!!
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
On the other hand, this means that we'll all technically live longer! .07 seconds of life. I wonder what I'll do with it ...
I've probably gained about
A CNN article on this subject included what I thought was a fascinating quote:
In human time, earthquakes that powerful are rare, but in the vastness of geologic time, they are commonplace. "An earthquake of this magnitude, in this part of the world, has probably occurred about a million times since the breakup of Pangea," said Chris Scotese, a geophysicist at the University of Texas-Arlington. "No exaggeration."
Too often we're bounded by thinking of events in human time scales (if not generational time scales) but a 9.0 quake is just a regular occurance in the life of the Earth. It's suppose it's events like these that reveals how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things.
Where the fuck do kids learn this shit? Sorry to go off on you, but we get posts like yours every time any thread comes up involving "the earth".
This ball of rock has been here for 4.5 billion years. It ain't going nowhere it ain't gone for the past 4.5 billion years.
Conservation of angular momentum is not the same as conservation of mass. You can speed up the Earth's rotation by squeezing it into something shaped like a bowling pin, or you slow down its rotation by squashing it into a disc, but its orbit around the sun doesn't change unless you add mass to it. And that isn't going to change measurably unless you add so much mass that all life on it would be wiped out anyways. (Hint: We've been taking on a few tons of mass every day in the form of micrometeorites. OMGLOLZ TEH SUN GONNA EAT US... well, actually, not. The earth is a small planet, but it's still pretty fucking massive.)
The reason I'm going ballistic is that this is all basic physics that was figured out over 300 years ago. It's called science. If you're not learning it in school, walk up to your envirocuddly studies, creationist esteem, or whatever the fuck else bullshit they're teaching today teacher. When you're within three feet of that teacher, give him or her a royal bitchslap. They'll expel you. That means you can get out of the fuckin' schools and into a fuckin' library and start learning something.
I had to answer a question from someone who'd heard that our days were now 2 seconds shorter.
On top of that, the numbers are based on a model, not measurements. The length of a day can't even be measured to better accuracy than 20 microseconds.
And then there's the fact that the natural tendency of the planet is to slow its rotation due to tidal drag. You should get back your 3 microseconds within a reasonable time.
Increasing Earth's rotational inertia would decrease angular velocity, which would LENGTHEN the amount of time required to complete one revolution.
In this case, the quake caused some settling to occur in the plates, which caused rotational inertia to decrease, angular velocity increased, and the day shortened.