![]() ![]() Such consequences of the quake vis-à-vis the Earth’s axis are interesting, but insignificant in terms of what we experience and of course do not detract from the human cost of the disaster.Ĭontinue reading here: IEEP reports that indirect impacts of European Biofuel Policy will cause more CO2 emissions, not less. The shift of mass would lengthen days by 0.06 microsecond, scientists said. For example, if the Three Gorges reservoir in China were filled, it would hold 10 trillion gallons (40 cubic kilometers) of water. On the other hand, the length of a day also can increase. Now, research quantifies the reasons why and finds that a third is due to melting ice and rising sea levels. The length of the day shortens due to something called the ‘Ice Skater Effect’, in which balance influences speed of rotation, like when in ice skater pulls her arms in to speed up during a spin. Since 1899, the Earths axis of spin has shifted about 34 feet (10.5 meters). The magnitude 9.1 Sumatran in 2004 that generated an Indian Ocean tsunami shortened the day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted the axis by about 2.3 milliarcseconds, Gross said. Previous earthquakes have had a similar effect, according to Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California: Astronomers concur that there has not been a shift in the earth’s rotational axis, but that there have been subtle polar shifts over the last ten years. So much land was moved during the earthquake that it may have significantly changed the Earth’s distribution of mass enough to affect such changes. They quoted the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy, that estimated that the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters). ![]() More precisely, a phenomenon called real pole shift occurs. on the Richter scale and is estimated to have shifted the Earth’s axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (8 cm or 3 in) and shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second) according to an article from Bloomberg. Our planet was turned upside down 84 million years ago when dinosaurs walked the earth. Last Saturday’s deadly earthquake in Chile may have slightly shortened the day and affected the position of the Earth’s axis, according to NASA scientists. ![]()
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