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Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis NASA Scientist Say
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:31 pm
by Sabre
Article
March 1 (Bloomberg) -- The earthquake that killed more than 700 people in Chile on Feb. 27 probably shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist said.
Earthquakes can involve shifting hundreds of kilometers of rock by several meters, changing the distribution of mass on the planet. This affects the Earth’s rotation, said Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who uses a computer model to calculate the effects.
“The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second),” Gross, said today in an e-mailed reply to questions. “The axis about which the Earth’s mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches).”
Re: Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis NASA Scientist Say
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:04 pm
by Mr Kleen
Re: Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis NASA Scientist Say
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:15 pm
by zaxrex
I wonder if those deep space radio telescopes and such have to compensate for the axis shift?
It would suck to wait two years to get the telescope time at an observatory and you load your tracking program, just to come back the next day to find everything was all wonky...
Re: Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis NASA Scientist Say
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:37 pm
by avriette
zaxrex wrote:I wonder if those deep space radio telescopes and such have to compensate for the axis shift?
i would imagine they need a "patch" for those presently up there, and...
It would suck to wait two years to get the telescope time at an observatory and you load your tracking program, just to come back the next day to find everything was all wonky...
some people put birds up for two years or a skosh more or less. while it's probably not so hard to adjust for, it's gotta be an irritation.
Re: Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis NASA Scientist Say
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:39 pm
by zaxrex
Birds=satellites?
I'm talking terrestrial based observation, deep space targets where such a small axis change can result in millions of miles target difference.
Whatchew talkin' about, Willis?
Re: Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis NASA Scientist Say
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:23 pm
by Sabre
zaxrex wrote:Birds=satellites?
Yep
Re: Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis NASA Scientist Say
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:47 pm
by zaxrex
Would an earth axis shift like that have any effect on satellites?
Re: Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis NASA Scientist Say
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:04 pm
by Sabre
Misalignment and the shortening of the day could cause problems for guidance systems and GPS... At least, that would be my thought on it.
