Quake may have made Earth wobble!

[AdminOnline]

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The deadly Asian earthquake may have permanently accelerated the Earth's rotation, shortening days by a fraction of a second and caused the planet to wobble on its axis, U.S. scientists said Tuesday.

Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.

When one huge tectonic plate beneath the Indian Ocean was forced below the edge of another "it had the effect of making the Earth more compact and spinning faster," Gross said.

Gross said changes predicted by his model probably are too minuscule to be detected by a global positioning satellite network that routinely measures changes in Earth's spin, but said the data may reveal a slight wobble.

The Earth's poles travel a circular path that normally varies by about 33 feet , so an added wobble of an inch is unlikely to cause long-term effects, he said.

"That continual motion is just used to changing," Gross said. "The rotation is not actually that precise. The Earth does slow down and change its rate of rotation."

When those tiny variations accumulate, planetary scientists must add a "leap second" to the end of a year, something that has not been done in many years, Gross said.

Scientists have long theorized that changes on the Earth's surface such as tide and groundwater shifts and weather could affect its spin but they have not had precise measurements to prove it, Caltech seismologist Hiroo Kanamori said.

"Even for a very large event, the effect is very small," Kanamori said. "It's very difficult to change the rotation rate substantially."

Source: [url]www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/12/29/quake.wobble.reut/index.html[/url]

[Illusional]

the day of Armageddon is near.

raverboy

[sfalexi]

EVERY tectonic plate moving affects the earth's axis and rotation. Just in different ways. So even though you may think Armeggedon is coming, something will more than likely happen in the future or over a long period of time that will make the earth less compact and affect it in the opposite way, thus returning it to "normal".

Examples: Another earthquake where the mass is pushed upwards to form mountainous landmasses, us throwing so much shit into space that there is less mass on earth because we have so much metal and ore in space (WAY off in the future).

Also, tides will be slightly different due to the quicker spin and therefore slightly less exposure that the ocean gets to the moon's gravitational pull. It won't be measurable, but then again, who really gives a **** about getting thrown off by one inch? If I recall correctly, North America (where I live) is getting three inches closer to Europe due to the continent just floating there every year. You don't see us worried about THAT years after that news was revealed.

Alexi

[KaWaiiSkYe]

The Day After Tomorrow.. *Drums*

[Illusional]

i was thinking the same thing. seeing the wave come up and wash everything away.

raverboy

[KaWaiiSkYe]

Yesh! The movie freaks me out a bit, like not scared me while watching it, just the fact that that's happening to the world in that movie.. Hahaha, am I making sense?!

[Illusional]

speaking of which, me and my coworker was thinking of "deep impact". that move also had a huge wave that killed half of america.

raverboy

[KaWaiiSkYe]

Yesh! But t'is Asia now!