Chile Earthquake Shortens Day, Shifts Axis

March 3rd, 2010 - 8:59 pm ICT by GD  

By Madhuri Dey
nasaWashington, Mar 3, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The massive earthquake that hit Chile on Saturday seem to have had some permanent effects on the earth. The days have become shorter, although the measurement is too minuscule to be really noticed. However, the shift in the axis of the earth can be really noticed, considering that it had been a major shift. All in all, according to recent calculations undertaken by the scientists in NASA, the impact of the earthquake in Chile on the geography of the earth has been considerably more than that of the Sumatra earthquake which occurred in 2004.

According to some calculations made by the scientists in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, the earthquake that occurred in Chile has had a major impact on the earth’s rotation, and also the axis, thus bringing about a significant change in the length of the day. As per the calculations undertaken by the researchers, the earthquake has increased the speed of the rotation of the earth, thus decreasing the length of the day by about 1.26 millionths of a second. However, this is not the exact figure, as the methods to calculate the speed of the earth has not yet been perfected to a T.

Richard Gross, the geophysicist at NASA who had conducted the researches based on a complicated mathematical model, also reported that the axis of the earth has shifted by about 8cms, or 3 inches. The change in the rotation velocity has been brought about due to the fact that Chile was hit by a thrust earthquake, in which one plate dives under the other, causing an increase in the speed of the rotation.

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