According to NASA ... the earthquake in Chile (not Peru as previously reported) caused the Earth to fall off it's axis. This is causing shorter days. I never knew an earthquake could have such an impact on this world.

WOODY

THAT is interesting but how can the days we shorten???

will we still have 24 hours in a day???

dgrimm60

Uh, that would be a "gotcha," Woody.

Good one, dgrimm.

Not me ... NASA

I'm just the messenger folks. Please don't shoot the messenger!!

WOODY

I am not going to shot the messenger so dont worry

dgrimm60

WOODY

SO NASA is that one saying that the days will be shorter

hhhmmmmmmmm


dgrimm60

The days are only shorter by milliseconds. I don't think you're going to notice.

RUDYWOOFS

WELL OK THEN

dgrimm60

Yes dgrimm. They say that we have now lost a little of our life because of that earthquake. And the scientist that was interviewed by Fox ... stated that we would lose that portion of life for all of eternity. Yes, a portion of each day for the rest of our days. Sad but True.

WOODY

WELL I guess we will have to live with these shorten days

dgrimm60

This is not totally sad. There are elements of wonderfulness! The merry-go-round has got to be spinning faster if the revolution time is shorter.

Maybe the increased friction will cause global warming and bring on another optimal climate age.

This changes EVERYTHING! Let's have a revolution. A faster one.

RUDYWOOFS
I guess it is like leap year the extra mins but
not that noticable

dgrimm60

RUDYWOOFS

EXCEPT we are losing the sec not addings like in leap year

dgrimm60

Not sure that I even believe that? But maybe they have always known this and are just letting us in on this! Seems very strange that we've had all these earthquakes and now all of a sudden it will shorten the daylight of each day!

pk

It may not be noticable to you. But personally ... I value each moment of my life. And now I have less life. :(

Chile must have been very evil to bring this upon the planet.

You should spend some time with my second aunt, Millie. We call her Millie 2nd.

I hope there's some payoff from losing milliseconds. Maybe if we could get rid of some of our ohnoseconds at the same time it would be worth it.

Less than milliseconds: microseconds.

And no, your life will not be any shorter. Say I'm measuring a door frame, and the ruler shrinks a bit. The door frame is still the same size, I'll just get a different measurement. Same deal: your life is still the same length, the units you're measuring it in have just changed.

1.26 millionths of a second, according to this article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100302-chile-earthquake-earth-axis-shortened-day/

...and even then, there are a lot of 'should haves' and 'maybes' there...

So Bravus does this happen each time there's an earthquake? And if this is the case, why are we just hearing about this now? But like you say its no big deal anyway.

pk

PKRAUSE

THAT is a good question about how often this happens

dgrimm60

Good Question pk. If with each earthquake we lose a little of our life ... pretty soon it will amount to a lot. :(

I actually was not thinking of it that way, but yes this does make sense, Woody and dgrimm! So Bravus let us know what the story is?

pk

And Bravus I have another question! When they say day, are they talking about the 24 hour day? or are they talking about the amount of light per day?

pk

No, the reason it would have happened (may have happened) this time is that a huge area of the sea floor, and hence a huge mass of rock and mud, was thrust upward by some distance. One of the articles I read compared it to an ice skater: if they extend their arms out from their bodies their spin slows, if they pull them in the spin speeds up. Similarly, some mass moved further out from the centre of the earth, slightly slowing the earth's rotation.

Most earthquakes involve sideways movement along faultlines, not upward or downward movement, so would have no effect on the earth's rotation. It's possible that the earthquake that caused the disastrous Boxing Day tsunami a few years ago was an upthrusting quake (hence the tsunami), and therefore it may also have slightly affected the earth's rotation.

The effects are miniscule, of course, and as I noted earlier, do not change the lengths of our lives by even those miniscule amounts... But I guess it's fun to play as if they do...

BRAVUS

WELL thank you for this infromation

dgrimm60

Yes. Me 2. I am greatly relieved. :)

Thanks for the info Bravus. Do you think that at the flood, we had this same situation? Because I would imagine that the earth must of had some very large EQs to cause massive amounts of water coming out of the earth? And if this EQ could knock the earth a little more off its axis, I wonder if this could've happen at the flood?

pk

If each day is a little bit shorter, then we will have a larger number of days, and therefore will live longer!!

DOTTIE

WELL that is an interesting thought

dgrimm60

Yes Indeed Dottie. Good Point. But this is just getting more and more complicated. We DO need to get to the bottom of this so that I will know though.

Keep up the good work folks.

Thanks, Bravus.

It's great having a real scientist on board, to explain all this technical stuff.

Well Jeannie. You could just listen to me :)

I sleep at the Holiday Inn and listen to Fox News. :)

Wait a millisecond, now.

If the earth's rotation is slowed, we should be getting more time, not less per day.

And what about those ohnoseconds? I want to get rid of some of them.

Karl, the scientist I saw yesterday on the FNC explained it in detail. Except he said the exact opposite of what Bravus said. He said that the rotation had sped up by 1.6 milliseconds. He also compared it to a spinning ice skater, and said that it was like pulling the arms in. He went on to say that the earth had actually contracted. So you were right karl. in order to get less time, it has to speed up.

Ok, good. I was thinking of wasting a millisecond or two here on CA, but now I'll type faster.

You still need to help me get rid of some of those ohnoseconds.

Thanks, karl and Richard: yeah, shoulda thought that explanation through a bit more and realised it explained a longer day, not a shorter one. The net effect of the earthquake must have been to lower some mass rather than raise it.

HEY ALL

SO have we gain or lost here

dgrimm60

Your remaining life has been shortened by the time it took you to post the above. It will be appropriate to panic in T minus 60 seconds... and counting.

KARL

oh ok

drimm60

This is exactly what my fear was. Thank you for clarifying this. Now I know. :)

Oi!!

So than the end will come quicker than expected? :)

pk

My days were much too long anyway.

Good one Richard. :)

pk