The recent 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile released so much energy that NASA scientists are saying that it has affected the Earth’s rotation and shortened our days!
The change in the length of the day came as a result of the shift in the Earth’s axis that occurred because of the quake. The Earth’s figure axis, the imaginary line about which its mass is balanced, shifted by 2.7 milliseconds of arc, or about eight centimetres.
Gross said the smaller Chilean earthquake had a greater effect on the Earth’s rotation because it occurred farther away from the equator. As well, the fault responsible for the Chile quake dips into the Earth at a steeper angle, making it more effective at shifting the axis.
trong earthquakes have altered Earth’s days and its axis in the past. The 9.1 Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, should have shortened Earth’s days by 6.8 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 2.76 inches