{"id":2468,"date":"2010-03-03T07:08:26","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T14:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=2468"},"modified":"2010-03-02T17:13:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T00:13:14","slug":"chile-earthquake-shortened-the-days-shifted-the-earths-axis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/natural-disasters\/chile-earthquake-shortened-the-days-shifted-the-earths-axis\/","title":{"rendered":"Chile earthquake shortened the days, shifted the Earth&#8217;s axis"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/x-25803-Natural-Disasters-Examiner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"The Earths axis was shifted slightly and our days shortened by last Saturdays earthquake in Chile. (NASA)\" src=\"http:\/\/image3.examiner.com\/images\/blog\/EXID25803\/images\/2010-03-02_121307.jpg\" alt=\"The Earths axis was shifted slightly and our days shortened by last Saturdays earthquake in Chile. (NASA)\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Earth&#39;s axis was shifted slightly and our days shortened by last Saturday&#39;s earthquake in Chile. (NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA scientists have determined that the massive <a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/x-25803-Natural-Disasters-Examiner~topic421475-Earthquakes?selstate=topcat#breadcrumb\" target=\"_blank\">magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday<\/a> has shortened our days and shifted the Earth\u2019s axis. Officials said that the effects of the event while not unusual are a testament to the power of the temblor.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Gross, a research scientist at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/\">NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)<\/a>, said his team had determined the Chile earthquake shorted the length of an Earth day by 1.26 microseconds. A microsecond is one millionth of a second.<\/p>\n<p>The 2004 earthquake in Sumatra which triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people was a magnitude 9.1 temblor. That event shortened the days by 6.8 microseconds according to the same computer models.<\/p>\n<p>Most interesting is the effect the quakes had on the earth\u2019s axis. Saturday\u2019s earthquake shifted the earth\u2019s axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). The Sumatran quake shifted the planet\u2019s axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds (about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches).<\/p>\n<p>The scientists said the 2010 Chile quake had a greater effect on the Earth\u2019s axis than the 2004 temblor because it occurred in the planet\u2019s mid-latitudes. By contrast, the Sumatran quake was near the equator.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers have said that all earthquakes affect the Earth\u2019s axis. Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA&#8217;s Goddard Space Flight Center, said \u201cAny worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth&#8217;s rotation, from seasonal weather down to driving a car.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>This story was originally written for the Natural Disasters Examiner on Examiner.com.\u00a0 <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/x-25803-Natural-Disasters-Examiner\"><strong>For complete coverage of all natural disasters from earthquakes and tsunamis to tornadoes and hurricanes, please visit the Natural Disasters Examiner<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Why do we link to Examiner.com?\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/thornton-weather\/so-what-is-the-story-with-examiner-com\/\">Click here to find out<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA scientists have determined that the massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday has shortened our days and shifted the Earth\u2019s axis. Officials said that the effects of the event while not unusual are a testament to the power of the temblor. Richard Gross, a research scientist at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/natural-disasters\/chile-earthquake-shortened-the-days-shifted-the-earths-axis\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Chile earthquake shortened the days, shifted the Earth&#8217;s axis<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[351,144,224,295],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2470,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions\/2470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}