Thaindian News

Mar 2 (THAINDIAN NEWS) According to NASA scientists, the 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have cause our days to be shortened by 1.26 millionths of a second. The quake, which occurred on Feb 27, and killed at least 723 people, shifted the earth’s axis by about 8 centimeters. This shift is what caused the day to be shortened.

These finding were figured on the computer at the Jet Propulsion Library by a researcher there by the name of Richard Gross. He said that the same model shows that the Sumatran earthquake, which had a magnitude of 9.1 may have shortened the day by 6.8 millionths of a second, but that the shift in the Earth’s axis at that time was only about 7 centimeters. This quake was closer to the Earth’s equator which is why it caused a smaller shift even thought it was a bigger quake. He also added that the fault which caused the Chile quake is deeper in the Earth’s surface, and goes in at a steeper range, which would make it shift the Earth’s axis more.

A day’s length is the time it takes for the Earth to complete one rotation, which is 84,000 seconds, or 24 hours. In the same manner that ice skaters can make their spins faster, by tucking in their arms, an earthquake can cause the earth to spin faster by shifting some of it’s mass closer to the axis of the planet. The changes in the speed of the spin would be permanent.

This means that a large amount of very big quakes could add up to make the day shorter, but these changes are so small that they cannot be recorded directly by scientists. They are only accurate to 5 millionths of a second. More data is needed before they can get a clearer picture of just how the quake has effected the planet.