NASA: Chile Quake Shortened Earth's Days, Bumped Planet Off Axis

I submit that all people around the Earth should make a simultaneous coordinated human effort to run westward at the same time.

6.7 billion people all running westward at the same time would turn the Earth into a giant treadmill, which would restore the Earth's rotation speed.

You fool! Did you not see the movie Superman? We'd run the risk of turning back the flow of time. Granted, not nearly by the same amount as Superman did (after all, he's super) - but enough so that our watches would always be a second or so ahead of earthbound clocks.

I'm not sure how that differential would lead to a global catastrophe for mankind...but I just know it would. Don't do it.

Wow! Good catch!

That was sort of like that idea where everyone was trying to get the world population to jump up and down at the same time. The National Inquirer said Top Scientists were worried that the simultaneous impact would form a black hole out of the Earth. Another close call!

:-)

We'd run the risk of turning back the flow of time.

I don't see a down side with that. I can think of plenty of things we might want to have a do-over for.

And such a project might do something about the booming obesity epidemic plague some nations too.

UNTIL THEY CAME TO A STOP. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY MY FRIEND!

Let's all synchronize our watches for a clean start.

Not so much worried about the shorter day, but what about the "axis" change. More data please.

What will be the effect? Will we need to re-define the tropic lines? Will this mean a greater summer/winter temperature swing for the poles?

Come on guys, we can get more miles out of this mother nature event in a week than all the climate change gurus have managed in the last three decades.

I am sure the U.N. is already seeing $$$ on this one.

I leave you with the wise words of Wednesday Adams, "Wait."

I'm pretty much amazed that an earthquake could have these effects. There's been a lot of seismic activity lately, I mean we are going through a patch of big quakes.

Just makes you wonder what could happen to the earths rotation and poles if there were a string of big ones.

I agree with you. The change in day length is interesting, but what I really want to see explained is the change in the earth's axis.

My day's shorter? Damn! I'm going to be late for work!

standarded wrote: "My day's shorter? "

Not to worry; the moon adds ~17μs to our day every year! This has added up over time and presently causes a "leap second" every 18 months on average. If not, our clocks get out of step with mean solar time.

-J

Do you believe that quakes can modify daily rotation as suggested?

Chris

Ah it's nice to see the Earth as a ballerina.. it's given me a smile on a world weary day.
Is its tutu round the Equator or the tropic of Capricorn?

Actually that very lucid analogy explains it nicely...I was actually thinking it was impossible, with action and reaction being equal and opposite...
Cheers
Del

Good Day all,

On Sunday an Australian Friend of mine himself a : Mining Engineer, reminded me that probably the greatest earthquake known had caused a subsequent Tsunami's waves approaching the : Australian Eastern Coasts with waves of : 400 meters height (+ 1200 feet). It is asserted that the proof had been at finding : large + 50 kilos sea lumps of rocks all covered with marine life , oyster shells and the like which were evident thousand of years after ! These were found hundred of kilometers inland in some areas Obviously this would have been the : Mother of Eartquakes !

Yet and on reflecting continuously at the mining extractive activities in the world, and inevitably , I return to my earlier thoughts that ultimately, if a quake can throw the axis of revolution off its course , when then will an effect of : out of balance, will or may occur as we continue to deplete the earth of minerals such as coal the weight/density of which is forever lost ?

Labor Omnia Vincit

Is pulling iron and other minerals out of the ground and turning it into something that is on the surface of the earth going to have much affect? I mean even if the stuff is pulled up from several miles down will that result in a significant change in the rotational moment of inertia of the Earth?

Guest-

Is this another excuse or plea to return us all to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle?

What about the effects of all the nuclear tests that have been done?

Could they not have also had some small effect?

There was a really big flood long ago that could account for this also.

complete bs if you ask me.

btw, I just heard Anderson Cooper say that 1.26 microseconds was basically "A Millionth of a second"... jeez..

I think the JPL scientist went to the same school.

mass of earth = 5.9742 × 10²⁴ kg. (source)

think about it.

Chris

I agree - the earth is way too big to be subject to anything as quaint as Newtonian mechanics. And those NASA scientists who have spent their entire careers understanding the precise movements of the earth and planets can't be trusted. And 1.26 microseconds is nothing at all like a millionth of a second.

my mistake.. I was thinking 3 decimal places was micro. as to the other... might make more sense now, coupled with Jorrie's clarification.

Chris

I was reading today that each Global Positioning System Satellite has 4 caesium atomic clocks on board, that are used to coordinate and synch the spin rate of the earth, and the position measured, and other factors. Enough data would obviously be gathered to be able to know the rotation of the earth accurately to 9 decimal places.

This isn't where I read it, but contains the info as a source.

Why Calculate? Measure!

Chris

I rather suspect Mother Nature has things in store for us, both terrestrially and cosmically that will put the hubris of man made changes in perspective.

I agree. According to my trivial seismic forecasting system, we're in for some doozies between now and Octoberish 2013. Interesting times.

The global warming/ climate change cultists already have that figured out and proven. They only have to wait for the unknown events and levels of influence to happen so as to be able to adjust( rewrite) their predictor mathematics to show that they had correctly predicted it earlier in some other form they had not already thought represented that influence.

Is that clear enough now?

I foresaw that you were right and predicted that I would give you a GA for that, and once again, all is as it should be/was and will be again.

882gsirhC