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NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the measuring-stuff dept.

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.

1 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    > .if this is common, or if this is something that could end up crashing us into the sun in a thousand years. Things in space tend to be exponential in nature.

    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.