Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day

Great! by MichaelSmith · 2010-03-01 16:30 · Score: 5, Funny

I can go home a few microseconds early today.

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Re:Great! by ls671 · 2010-03-01 17:43 · Score: 2, Informative

While at it, also note that Earth rotation period is ~23h56m, not ~24h because the surface of the Earth facing the Sun moves in the opposite direction of the Earth moving around the Sun.

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Re:Great! by derGoldstein · 2010-03-01 17:46 · Score: 5, Funny

Sir, please don't bring your heliocentric propaganda into this scientific discussion.

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Re:Great! by TapeCutter · 2010-03-01 18:03 · Score: 4, Informative

"We should also note that making a pseudo-sphere diameter smaller doesn't shorten the daylight/obscurity period on the said sphere. Even if Earth went to half its current diameter, days should remain the same length unless we change the rotation speed as they suggest in TFA."

Shrinking the sphere and keeping the mass the same will increase the rotation speed. This is why the nutron star left behind after a supernova spins so fast. It's also the reason an ice skater spins faster when they draw in their arms. - Please hand in your geek card on your way out. ;)

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Re:Great! by ae1294 · 2010-03-01 18:14 · Score: 2, Funny

I hear talk on 4chan that he's a witch! Ye best not be speaking with-um again less ye too be dragged before the inquisition!
Re:Great! by TapeCutter · 2010-03-01 18:29 · Score: 5, Funny

"Hu, that's pretty interesting but what's a nutron star again?"

Irresistible bait for spelling Nazi's.

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And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Re:Great! by tsm_sf · 2010-03-01 21:02 · Score: 4, Interesting

The question to ask yourself is - stationary in relation to what?

Wasn't there a famous quote to the effect that you could say the earth was the center of the universe, but it just makes calculations needlessly difficult?

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Re:Great! by dkh2 · 2010-03-02 00:36 · Score: 2, Funny

And what do we do with a witch?

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Re:Great! by dkh2 · 2010-03-02 00:37 · Score: 2, Funny

Doesn't matter anyway. Everything revolves around me. I am the center of the universe, and I can prove it.

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Re:Great! by wcb4 · 2010-03-02 01:29 · Score: 2, Funny

Burn them!!!!

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Re:Great! by mdwh2 · 2010-03-02 01:52 · Score: 5, Informative

Einstein said everything was relative and that your perception depends on your point of view.
Velocity is relative, but acceleration isn't relative. Rotation involves acceleration. So it isn't equivalent to say that X rotates around Y is the same as Y rotates around X. (Hypothetical example: consider a universe empty except for a single planet which is rotating. What does it mean to say it's rotating, without reference to background stars? Is it equivalent to a model where we say the planet doesn't rotate? No - we could see the difference in a centrifugal force causing the planet to bulge as it rotates.)
On a funny note Wikipedia says:
"is the astronomical theory that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun and that the Sun is STATIONARY and at the center of the universe. "
I don't see what's funny? It's perfectly correct that this is what heliocentrism means. And yes, it still wasn't correct - but the point is it was a vast improvement over geocentrism. The Wikipedia article already covers this, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism#The_view_of_modern_science .
Re:Great! by Dishevel · 2010-03-02 03:51 · Score: 3, Funny

Burn them!!!!
No.
We nuke them from orbit. It is the only way to be sure.

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Re:Great! by digitalhermit · 2010-03-02 03:57 · Score: 2, Informative

Indeed.
Remember calculus 2 and wheel problems? One approach to the equations was to put the center of rotation at the center of the wheel. Another approach is to consider the wheel as rotating around the point of contact with the surface. One seems non-intuitive, but can simplify a bunch of other equations. Or dealing with rotating CoM equations...
Re:Great! by clone53421 · 2010-03-02 05:10 · Score: 2, Interesting

It has to do with second moments, rotational inertia, that sort of thing... all very complicated and I don’t remember much of it.
However, what I do remember is this. Basically, for any given mass and assuming that you can’t significantly change its density, it has the least possible rotational inertia if its mass is circularly distributed as close to the axis of rotation as possible*... e.g. a cylinder, sphere, disc, etc. So, a torus (donut) will have more rotational inertia than a disc of the same mass, and a sphere will have even less rotational inertia than the disc.
Since rotational momentum is the product of angular velocity and rotational inertia, and the momentum is conserved since there are no outside forces, if the rotational inertia increases, the speed must decrease to conserve energy. Conversely if the rotational inertia decreases, the speed increases.
Basically, the tl;dr version of that is, lumpy shapes spin more slowly than smooth round ones do. If an earthquake makes the earth generally more round, it speeds up the earth’s rotation; however if it lowers some parts while thrusting others upward it does the opposite: slows it down.
*The rotational inertia is actually dependent on the axis of rotation; a perfect sphere will have more rotational inertia than a long, cylindrical rod... but only if the rod is spinning on its longwise axis. In other words, a perfect sphere has the least rotational inertia in all possible axes of rotation, although not in any particular one. The rotational inertia is an integral of mass times its distance from the axis of rotation. A sphere minimizes this for all possible axes; a cylinder with infinite length and zero radius minimizes it for exactly one axis... in fact this hypothetical cylinder would have zero rotational inertia along that axis and its angular velocity would be infinite.

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Now I'm late! by Subm · 2010-03-01 16:33 · Score: 4, Funny

Crap, I was going to post something funny, but now I'm 1.26 microseconds late. Sorry, I gotta run...

Re:Did this affect climate by larry+bagina · 2010-03-01 16:34 · Score: 5, Funny

either way, it's anthropogenic.

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Re:Did this affect climate by biryokumaru · 2010-03-01 16:37 · Score: 4, Funny

Man, I checked out that pizza link in your sig, and that is so cool! I wish the pizza place would be that good around here. I live in NYC and I can't even get them to leave their car to deliver pizza to my door, let alone all those other handy features they show there.

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How often do such quakes occur? by Opportunist · 2010-03-01 16:38 · Score: 3, Funny

I mean, don't forget that a day only has 86,400 seconds (give or take...). One such quake doesn't really matter. A hundred won't. A million will start to matter. A billion definitly will.

And of course, they don't happen every day but, well, a billion years ain't that long if you're a planet...

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Re:How often do such quakes occur? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-03-01 17:06 · Score: 5, Informative

The reason the day length changes is because the quake caused a net motion of mass toward the center of the planet. This reduces the moment of inertia, and because of conservation of momentum, the planet's rotation must speed up.
If this happened repeatedly, it would mean that the density of the planet was increasing. That can't happen to any significant degree, because it would involve compression, which requires a source of energy (note -- I don't mean that the increased rotation is due to an energy input, just that it takes energy to compress a planet). Earthquakes just move energy around, they do not create it. So over long spans of time, earthquakes tend to increase the length of the day by about as much as they decrease it. It all depends on whether the net motion was toward the center of the earth or away from it.
This is based on my knowledge of physics, but I am not a geologist, so there may be complicating factors I don't know about. However, I'm pretty sure that the planet's density cannot increase arbitrarily.
Re:How often do such quakes occur? by danlip · 2010-03-01 17:10 · Score: 2, Informative

Some quakes elevate land which would slow the spin of the earth, but some might lower it, and erosion is constantly lowering the land. After 5 billion years we are probably pretty much in a steady state as far as that goes (earthquakes push it up, and erosion tears it down). Of course other things like tidal forces between the earth and sun are having long term affects which will accumulate overtime (I believe slowing the earth's spin and moving it further from the sun).
Re:How often do such quakes occur? by ashridah · 2010-03-01 17:12 · Score: 2, Interesting

That's assuming every single one shortens the day. Do we know if they'll actually do that, or if there's more likely to be some kind of gaussian spread across positive and negative shifts?
Re:How often do such quakes occur? by tompaulco · 2010-03-01 17:31 · Score: 3, Informative

A quick back of the hand calculation tells me that tidal friction is only two orders of magnitude less effect than this. So about 100 days of tidal friction is equal to this event.

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Re:How often do such quakes occur? by indi0144 · 2010-03-01 17:49 · Score: 3, Interesting

So what happens if instead of 100 8.3 eartquakes we have 10 @ 10.1?

From wikipedia:

>> Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale, each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude; in terms of energy, each whole number increase corresponds to an increase of about 31.6 times the amount of energy released.<<

This quake was 8.8 ram == 15.8 gigatons of TNT delivered
The one (the comet impact) that owned the dinosaurs was 13.0 ram or 100 teratons of TNT

And we really need one, very powerful in the right place at the right time to cause a polar swift. You know, after that you would start to see random Angels coming to Neo New York and Evas and stuff... no in all seriousness a polar swift will fuck us all big time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale
Re:How often do such quakes occur? by derGoldstein · 2010-03-01 18:14 · Score: 2, Informative

a billion years ain't that long if you're a planet...
Yes, it is. Our sun's lifespan is about 10 billion years, and it's half-way through. In other word, the solar system should be having its mid-life crisis now.

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Re:How often do such quakes occur? by Kaleidoscopio · 2010-03-01 21:43 · Score: 2, Funny

6000 years? Where did you come up with that number? Earth's age is around 4.5 billion years. 6000 years would be the age of the Homo Sapiens or something similar...
Re:How often do such quakes occur? by pongo000 · 2010-03-02 01:11 · Score: 5, Informative

This is based on my knowledge of physics, but I am not a geologist, so there may be complicating factors I don't know about. However, I'm pretty sure that the planet's density cannot increase arbitrarily.
What goes up must come down...in geology, it's called istosasy. It's sort of like gravitational equilibrium. What sinks in one place is usually offset by a height increase elsewhere. Over years, the small geologic events (and yes, the Chile earthquake is small when measured in geologic units) balance themselves out. I would not worry too much about the lost microsecond. We'll gain it back next year.

Re:What's with the red headline bar? by Tynin · 2010-03-01 16:43 · Score: 5, Funny

It means that no one had posted anything to the comments of the story yet. And if you are a /. regular it's really a secret troll code telling you to rush in to comment about frosty piss and checking the post anonymously button while praying to the FSM that you beat all the other cowards to it. ;)

FFS! by Foobar+of+Borg · 2010-03-01 16:44 · Score: 4, Funny

Oh, for fuck's sake! I've got too much shit to do already! And now, I have 1.26 microseconds less to do it in??!! Scheisse! Of course, maybe I shouldn't post on slashdot. Maybe that would save more than 1.26 microseconds.

Re:FFS! by Anonymous Coward · 2010-03-01 16:51 · Score: 3, Funny

Seriously! Think of all the things you could do with all that time:
- Make love to your wife
- List all of Pat Robertson's positive traits
- Use WinMo before freaking out and throwing your phone out the window
C'mon people, this is valuable time here!
Re:FFS! by feepness · 2010-03-01 16:55 · Score: 4, Funny

Oh, for fuck's sake! I've got too much shit to do already! And now, I have 1.26 microseconds less to do it in??!! Scheisse! Of course, maybe I shouldn't post on slashdot. Maybe that would save more than 1.26 microseconds.
You could make love to your girlfriend a couple fewer times per week.
Re:FFS! by Mitchell314 · 2010-03-01 17:52 · Score: 2, Funny

Just an *obvious* reminder, but Slashdot posters don't have girlfriends.

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Re:FFS! by PhiberOptix · 2010-03-02 01:04 · Score: 2, Informative

someone didn't get the joke

Re:Did this affect climate by Anonymous Coward · 2010-03-01 16:47 · Score: 5, Funny

I knew it! I blame the political party I'm not affiliated with.

GPS affected? by johnny+cashed · 2010-03-01 16:49 · Score: 4, Interesting

Does this affect GPS for a short time? I understand that the USAF (or whoever runs it) will correct the system, but how quickly does this occur? Would it affect a JDAM bomb in flight, for example?

Re:GPS affected? by feepness · 2010-03-01 16:59 · Score: 5, Insightful

If it was traveling at 400 miles per hour, 1.26 microseconds is 0.007 inches. I am assuming that is within detonation radius.
Re:GPS affected? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-03-01 17:15 · Score: 3, Interesting

It's not about the speed of the bomb. It's about the speed of the sattelites which orbit Earth and which the bomb uses to guide itself.
A sattelite travelling in Geostationary orbit clocks 3.8km/s. In 1.26 microseconds it would travel about 5mm. If it, say, takes a month until the government calculates and issues the correcting commands, the offset would accumulate to 15cm.
If a guided missile is launched to fly into a window of an enemy-occupied building, the offset can be enough to make a difference between hitting the window and hitting the wall.
Re:GPS affected? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-03-01 17:16 · Score: 5, Funny

A James Bond inch? How awesome!
Re:GPS affected? by T+Murphy · 2010-03-01 17:50 · Score: 2, Insightful

More people die in car accidents every single day than died in this earthquake. What is with all this sensationalism about such an insignificant event.

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Re:GPS affected? by RoFLKOPTr · 2010-03-01 18:44 · Score: 4, Informative

If a guided missile is launched to fly into a window of an enemy-occupied building, the offset can be enough to make a difference between hitting the window and hitting the wall.
GPS doesn't have the kind of precision to guide a shot like that regardless of whether the time is uncalibrated. If we need to launch a missile into a building and it is imperative that it enter the building through a small window, we would surely use laser or thermal guidance... not GPS.

I know we love sensationalist headlines, but by zygotic+mitosis · 2010-03-01 17:01 · Score: 3, Insightful

Remember, this is only what a model predicts, unlike what the headline suggests. And anyway, I think even if the quake had effects on day length and/or axis, another quake somewhere else on Earth sets it back a little. It averages out to what we witness. Earth is a dynamic place.

Re:I know we love sensationalist headlines, but by The+Wild+Norseman · 2010-03-01 17:08 · Score: 5, Funny

Remember, this is only what a model predicts, unlike what the headline suggests.
Lemme guess: they used the Quake II engine?

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I'm no Mathematologist by dmomo · 2010-03-01 17:14 · Score: 3, Funny

But according to my calculations, all we have to do is set our calendars back a day... ... in 188,253,750 (ish) years.

I wonder how the PS3 will handle this.

I say everyone by Korbeau · 2010-03-01 17:18 · Score: 3, Funny

People of Earth, at 18:00 GMT March 10 we all jump at the same time and regain our microsecond!

Re:I say everyone by jdc18 · 2010-03-01 18:11 · Score: 2, Funny

No no no, you just need the chinese to do it
Re:I say everyone by derGoldstein · 2010-03-01 18:23 · Score: 5, Funny

I wonder... Compare the total weight of the entire chinese population to the total weight of the entire population of the US. Who's heavier?

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Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
Re:I say everyone by H0p313ss · 2010-03-01 19:06 · Score: 4, Funny

If the US jumped a microsecond after China then the US would act as the wall and the earth would bounce into the opposite top corner pocket, haven't you ever played pool before.
Dude, you're doing it all wrong, you want to put ENGLISH on the ball.

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Will it affect global climate? by NotQuiteReal · 2010-03-01 17:23 · Score: 4, Funny

Will it affect global climate?

Yes - the days are shorter, therefore less sunlight per day, ergo - global cooling!

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This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.

Re:Did this affect climate by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2010-03-01 17:28 · Score: 2, Funny

I knew it! I blame the political party I'm not affiliated with.

You clueless dolt - it's patently obvious the fault of the political party you ARE affiliated with!

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Re:Did this affect climate by Anonymous Coward · 2010-03-01 17:32 · Score: 5, Funny

Q. What do all ice ages have in common?

A. They never happened! That's what they have in common, they have all been concocted by scientists with an agenda to undermine scripture.

And for all those who think that this earthquake wasn't caused by Man ... well it was! Fornication, homosexuality, feminism, democracy, drug-taking, violent video games, on-line porn, science, charity, freedom of speech, blashpemy, etc. etc. all these evils will not go unpunished!

Re:Did this affect climate by c6gunner · 2010-03-01 17:34 · Score: 3, Interesting

I actually liked the ACLU until I followed that link. Thanks a lot. Now I'm starting to wonder if they're any less crazy than the Ron Paul fanatics.

Re:Did this affect climate by FooAtWFU · 2010-03-01 17:41 · Score: 4, Interesting

You say this to make fun of the global warming debate, but theoretically it's not completely impossible that underground nuclear testing has something to do with the specifics of any earthquakes since the 1950s or so. Earthquakes are undoubtedly chaotic, and a series of megaton explosions underground might have shaken things a little and helped them get where they're going faster (temporarily).

Mind you, I'm not claiming that's necessarily the case either (or even probably the case). Just that, much like a decent conspiracy theory, it's not entirely nonsense or outside the realm of possibility. (I'd guess that overall seismicity remains the same overall but chaotic effects will change the locations of, say, half the aftershocks next century.)

USGS FAQ here.

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Re:Did this affect climate by Mitchell314 · 2010-03-01 17:45 · Score: 5, Funny

It's the fault of both the parties, you sheeple!

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Re:Did this affect climate by sleeping143 · 2010-03-01 17:59 · Score: 2, Insightful

Just because a phenomenon is measurable doesn't mean it's significant.

Re:Not worth mentioning by Animats · 2010-03-01 18:39 · Score: 3, Interesting

The earth is naturally slowing down at a rate that makes this sort of thing hardly worth mentioning.

Actually, the slowdown is only about 2ms/century, or about 0.054 microseconds/day. So a 1-microsecond jump in a day should be noticeable. This information is tracked. Here's the raw data from the Earth Rotation Service.

With GPS systems working down to 15cm, changes like this get noticed.

Re:Nit-Picking Science by Khyber · 2010-03-01 19:42 · Score: 2, Informative

"Why this tsunami did not ended on Hawaii like the one in 1960?"

This one is easy - the 1960 earthquake was FAR more powerful than 2010. It was out of steam by the time it got close.

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Re:Did this affect climate by butlerm · 2010-03-01 20:30 · Score: 4, Insightful

theoretically it's not completely impossible that underground nuclear testing has something to do with the specifics of any earthquakes since the 1950s or so.

No doubt. Theoretically, it is an absolute certainty that the migration of swallows to Capistrano has something to do with the specifics of every earthquake for centuries now.

Re:Did this affect climate by AGMW · 2010-03-01 20:58 · Score: 4, Funny

Q. What do all ice ages have in common?

A. They never happened! That's what they have in common, they have all been concocted by scientists with an agenda to undermine scripture.

And for all those who think that this earthquake wasn't caused by Man ... well it was! Fornication, homosexuality, feminism, democracy, drug-taking, violent video games, on-line porn, science, charity, freedom of speech, blashpemy, etc. etc. all these evils will not go unpunished!

Cool ... so how does this work then? Do we just pick our favourite 5 or something? OK ... give me a fornication, drug-taking, on-line porn, with a side of violent video games, and good God why not, throw in some blasphemy!

--
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And then about the non-sarcasm part by jonaskoelker · 2010-03-01 21:23 · Score: 4, Insightful

More people die in car accidents every single day than died in this earthquake.

And that, I think, is actually a real problem---it would be really great if you could somehow get people to drive a bit more safely. It'd save a lot of lives, including the lives of a bunch of productive citizens, i.e. it'd also bring more material wealth for everybody.

Yeah, sure, that shouldn't take the spotlight away from a recent significant event (which also has a lot of wounded and property damage).

But maybe it's something worth pouring resources into?

Re:Did this affect climate by dintech · 2010-03-01 21:30 · Score: 4, Informative

As you probably already know, there are loads of other more mundane ways to instigate an earthquake. This wired article is quite interesting. To summarise:

Build a Dam Inject Liquid Into the Ground Mine a Lot of Coal Drill a Gusher Dry Create the World’s Biggest Building

Everyone stand up by caywen · 2010-03-01 21:45 · Score: 4, Funny

I think if everyone in the world stands up and raises their arms for 10 seconds once per year, we can compensate for this.

Re:Nit-Picking Science by Khyber · 2010-03-01 21:50 · Score: 3, Interesting

Okay, if this is the case, explain the sudden three inch drop in shadow (I use the shadow on a tarp to determine seasonal change) which usually indicates a full month of time passing, and this happening within two days of the earthquake.

I learned how to read time and the season by the shadows while in prison. Pretty neat when you learn how to do it, but this totally throws the estimation off.

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Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.

Re:Did this affect climate by Aceticon · 2010-03-01 23:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

In Chaos Theory, a small change to the inputs can cause large changes to the results.

However the changes are just as likelly to go in one direction as they are to go in the opposite direction: the butterfly effect is just as likelly to result in a typhoon instead of clear weather as it is to result in clear weather instead of a typhoon.

Also, small changes to inputs can cause small changes to the outputs or even no changes at all (that's why it's called Chaos Theory) - plenty of butterflies flutter-about with out creating typhoons ;)

If indeed the system that underpins earthquakes is chaotic, underground nuclear tests are just as likelly to have brought forward quakes as they are to have delayed quakes as they are not not have had much effect at all - in fact, they're likelly to have done all of them.

Concepcion, Chile: not the second largest City... by lathama · 2010-03-01 23:36 · Score: 2, Informative

While I am new to Chile I do know my facts. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_in_Chile#Largest_cities Concepción is not even in the top 10 Cities. The Conurbation of Concepción is the second largest Conurbation.

Read more and learn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conurbation

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Re:Did this affect climate by krou · 2010-03-01 23:55 · Score: 2, Funny

Would that be The People's Front of Judea?

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Its Ok, by Jarik+C-Bol · 2010-03-02 01:19 · Score: 4, Insightful

Its ok though, because it offset the effect of the three gorges dam in china, which made the days longer. http://www.theenergylibrary.com/node/11435 sure, that dam lengthened the day by less than the earthquake shortened it, but we also have to account for other dams that have lengthened days.

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Re:Did this affect climate by natehoy · 2010-03-02 01:28 · Score: 2, Funny

That lot of bastards? No, it's the People's Judean Front. Next you'll be thinking it was the Judean People's Front or something stupid like that.

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Re:Did this affect climate by natehoy · 2010-03-02 01:32 · Score: 2, Interesting

Right, but it only takes a single pebble to start an avalanche.

Now, mind you, if a nuclear weapon ever did trigger an earthquake it would probably just be the trigger event, and the pressure would still have been there from the start. If anything, the nuclear weapon would cause the earthquake to happen sooner, thereby possibly reducing the severity of the eventual quake.

Wow, I just had a brilliant idea. California is worried about the Next Big Quake, and the solution to their problem is so simple - let's trigger whatever pressure is there now in a smaller quake.

Dust off and nuke the state from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

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Re:Even we can affect the length of a day by natehoy · 2010-03-02 01:48 · Score: 2, Funny

It all depends on who you are. Southwest obviously thinks that Kevin Smith would have a measurable effect.

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Re:Did this affect climate by imaque · 2010-03-02 01:54 · Score: 2, Funny

What I want to know is, if one were to measure all the energy released from burning all the books in the Library of Congress, how many Libraries of Congress would it total?

Obligatory XKCD Post by zummit · 2010-03-02 07:19 · Score: 2, Funny

http://www.xkcd.com/162/

For us in Chile, the days just got longer by cenc · 2010-03-02 07:43 · Score: 2, Interesting

For us in the disaster zone (I am in Temuco 100 miles south of the worst hit areas), it feels like 48 hour days. They likly will just get longer as this goes on.

if you want to help, visit http://www.allchile.net/

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