Chilean Quake Shortened the Earth Days?
Posted by feww on March 3, 2010
NASA Rocket Scientists Say ‘Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days’
This view of Earth comes from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Terra satellite. Credit: NASA/JPL
NASA JPL researchers claim the February 27, megaquake measuring 8.8Mw that destroyed many Chilean coastal towns, may have also shortened the duration of the planet’s day.
JPL research scientist Richard Gross says he and fellow researchers, using a complex model, have calculated how the Earth’s rotation should have changed as a result of the Chilean mega quake. He claims, “Earth’s figure axis (the axis about which Earth’s mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet). ”
According to their preliminary calculation, the quake should have shortened the duration of the planetary day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).
“Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth’s axis. Gross calculates the quake should have moved Earth’s figure axis (the axis about which Earth’s mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (~ 80 mm, or 3 inches). Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet).”
Gross says, the 2004 9.1-magnitude Sumatran earthquake should have shortened the day’s length by an estimated 6.8 microseconds, shifting the planet’s axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds (~ 70mm).
“Gross said that even though the Chilean earthquake is much smaller than the Sumatran quake, it is predicted to have changed the position of the figure axis by a bit more for two reasons. First, unlike the 2004 Sumatran earthquake, which was located near the equator, the 2010 Chilean earthquake was located in Earth’s mid-latitudes, which makes it more effective in shifting Earth’s figure axis. Second, the fault responsible for the 2010 Chilean earthquake dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake. This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth’s mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth’s figure axis.”
Gross believes the Chile estimates could change as quake data are further refined.
IF these important findings can be verified, let’s hope, for the planet’s sake and ours, we won’t have another 68,571,428,571 magnitude 8.8 quakes occurring all in the same place and in such way that they do NOT cancel out each other’s axial shift!
Notes:
- Fire-Earth has NO independent verification of the above claims, as of posting.
- The energy released by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake is about 31.6 times greater than that of a M8.0 shock.
- The Chilean M8.8 megaquake released about 1 exajoule of energy (about 240 megaton, or 16,000 times the size of Hiroshima A-bomb). It was about 180 times greater than the energy from the recent Haiti quake (estimated at 7.3Mw).
- The 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatran earthquake released about 2.81 exajoules of energy, about 2.82 times greater than the Chilean 8.8 quake.
- Largest ever instrumentally-recorded earthquake, the 9.5Mw supershock that struck Chile on May 22, 1960 was 11.2 time more powerful than Chile’s February 27 quake described above.
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VT Padmanabhan said
The nuclear weapon tests released more than 500 MT of TNT equivalent. They also released lots of neutrons, ionizing radiation and nucleation-mode/nanoparticles that were lofted into the stratosphere. I wish FEWW did an analysis of the global impacts of these games.
feww said
If you know of any reliable study or data, we’d be happy to look it over.