Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day

Slashdot ^ | 3/1/10 | kdawson

[Clint Williams]

ailnlv writes

"Days on Earth just got shorter. The recent earthquake in Chile shifted the planet's axis by about 8 cm and shortened days by 1.26 microseconds 'The changes can be modeled, though they're difficult to detect physically given their small size... Some changes may be more obvious, and islands may have shifted... Santa Maria Island off the coast near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, may have been raised 2 meters (6 feet) as a result of the latest quake...'"

[Clint Williams]

Shorter days. A good thing -- gives Congress less time to dream up trouble. / s

[Mr. K]

I thought I felt still tired this mornign...

[texanyankee]

Does that mean we earth will be cooling?

[almcbean]

Tough decision-Should I subtract it from my work day, or from my FR time?

[Republic of Texas]

...women and minorities to suffer the most!

[1rudeboy]

I guess I won’t have that extra drink, then. No time.

[Dewey Revoltnow]

Oh great, 1.26 microseconds closer to Doomsday.

[MP5]

That was my first thought. Maybe the final exclamation point to the end of this global warming nonsense.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It’s shorter on one side of the earth. Longer on the other side.

[sionnsar]

Bush’s Fault.

[stuartcr]

This is probably going to continue until Dec 2012...by then, the day won’t exist.

[ZULU]

This is BAD news!!

If we have any MORE earthquakes .......... the earth may STOP ROTATING!!!!

Then we will all fall off!!!

QUICK!!!!! Call Dr. GORE!!!!

CALL DR. GORE!!!!

[ml/nj]

Santa Maria Island off the coast near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, may have been raised 2 meters (6 feet) as a result of the latest quake...'"

Quite the break for them considering the imminent rising seas that AlGore is prophesying.

ML/NJ

[ETL]

"ailnlv writes "Days on Earth just got shorter. The recent earthquake in Chile shifted the planet's axis by about 8 cm and shortened days by 1.26 microseconds"

I could have sworn it was 7.5 cm.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Would you happen to know the revised DeltaT as a result of this incident? I’ve been unable to locate revised DeltaT numbers from the 2004 Christmas earthquake/Tsunami.

[Sacajaweau]

I’m not losing any sleep over it....No pun intended....

[ETL]

"Santa Maria Island off the coast near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, may have been raised 2 meters (6 feet) as a result of the latest quake."

Now this is much more feasible, and comparatively easy to determine if true.

[Revolting cat!]

Go ahead, laugh about it, but over the years it adds up to subtract from your lifetime!

[Sender]

And I just had my watch adjusted too.

[Wurlitzer]

Ummmmmmmmm, if just the axis was shifted, would that not mean one hemisphere got longer daylight hours and one got shorter ones while the overall time for 1 rotation remained the same? This of course would change 1/2 way on our free trip around the sun each year.

Now if the rotational speed picked up ever so slightly then yes the 24 hr day would shorten.

Now if we can only get the Canadians off the metric clock of 25 hours everyone will be in sync.