Chile Quake Shortened Days· March 10, 2010

      Science reported that the massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile, the seventh strongest quake in recorded history, “may have changed the entire Earth’s rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday. The earthquake “should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.”

      “Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth’s axis,” NASA officials said… The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues… also found that it should have moved Earth’s figure axis [around which the earth’s mass is balanced] by about 3 inches (8 cm or 27 milliarcseconds).

      “Strong earthquakes have altered Earth’s days and its axis in the past. The 9.1 Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, should have shortened Earth’s days by 6.8 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 2.76 inches (7 cm, or 2.32 milliarcseconds).

      The Chile earthquake was much smaller than the Sumatran temblor, but its effects on the Earth are larger because of its location. Its epicenter was located in the Earth’s mid-latitudes rather than near the equator like the Sumatran event.

      MSNBC News Article