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Richard Gross, a research scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, calculated how much the axis may have changed in position following the the disaster.

More than 700 people died and two million are estimated to have been affected by the 8.8-magnitude tremor and subsequent tsunamis.

The quake, the most powerful to hit the nation in 50 years, sent shockwaves out from the epicentre 70 miles from Chile's second city, Concepcion.

Buildings and roads collapsed and 500,000 homes have been left severely damaged.

Six aid workers died when a plane carrying them to Concepcion crashed.

The team was on its way to help organise accommodation for those left homeless by the disaster.

Soldiers were sent to patrol Concepcion's streets after mobs set fire to shops and started looting them, hindering attempts to rescue survivors.

If the planet's axis did shift by 8cm during the quake, days would have shortened by 1.26 microseconds, Mr Gross calculated.

A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

Earth days are 24 hours long because that is the amount of time it takes the planet to make one full rotation on its axis, so shifting the axis would affect rotation.

The quake shifted the Earth's axis by even more than the 9.1-magnitude tremor off Indonesia that started the deadly tsunami in Asia in 2004, according to Mr Gross.

This was partly because the fault line responsible for the quake in Chile "dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake", he said.

The different angle made Saturday's tremor more effective at moving Earth's mass vertically and shifting the planet's axis, Mr Gross continued.

The 2004 quake in Asia, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused the Earth to move by around 7cm.

It chopped an estimated 6.8 microseconds off the length of a day, Nasa said. (source Yahoo.com)

nice found !

it was on the yahoo home page yesterday, was a little alarmed at the title but its only a few millimeters, the earth tilts more on its own anyways

few millimeters? It's not even close to one millimeter...

1.26 microseconds!!!! DAMN IT! NOW WHEN AM I SUPPOSED TO BLINK?!?!

can someone tell me where should I live to be at the safest place?

NuclearSilo wrote:can someone tell me where should I live to be at the safest place?

Go into the woods and dig a hole.
OnTopic:
NOEZ CHILE STEALZ MA TIME!

MrJoey wrote:few millimeters? It's not even close to one millimeter...

No, it moved an entire 3 inches.

Apparently this happens often with strong Earthquakes, no big deal, but a damn freaky headline to read.

so long nights instead?

curvekiller wrote:
OnTopic:
NOEZ CHILE STEALZ MA TIME!

Epic.

NuclearSilo wrote:can someone tell me where should I live to be at the safest place?

Outer Space!

Well, It's kinda hard to tell.. xD

I knew something was up...yesterday just flew by didnt it?

I was supposed to pass in an essay but I couldn't because I forgot to set my alarm forward by 1.26 millisecond!
Damn it

Fury wrote:I knew something was up...yesterday just flew by didnt it?

right you are.

NuclearSilo wrote:can someone tell me where should I live to be at the safest place?

haiti for sure

EvGa wrote:

MrJoey wrote:few millimeters? It's not even close to one millimeter...

No, it moved an entire 3 inches.

Apparently this happens often with strong Earthquakes, no big deal, but a damn freaky headline to read.

lol

It's too bad I don't live in the Canadian Shield. Then I'd have Earthquake immunity.

EvGa wrote:

MrJoey wrote:few millimeters? It's not even close to one millimeter...

No, it moved an entire 3 inches.

Apparently this happens often with strong Earthquakes, no big deal, but a damn freaky headline to read.

Yeah, I mixed up the measurements of time (microsecond) with the distance. Honest mistake.

PhoenixRider wrote:It's too bad I don't live in the Canadian Shield. Then I'd have Earthquake immunity.

there was actually a small one up in the sudbury area a few years ago. which is well in the shield.

PhoenixRider wrote:It's too bad I don't live in the Canadian Shield. Then I'd have Earthquake immunity.

well as long as you don't live near a fault line, I dont think there should be any reason to worry.

this offsets global warming , earth tilts away from sun now so the few degrees we warmed will be cooled down

Code: Select all

Offtopic, but for a good luls: )

satman83 wrote:I love how the media jump on shit like this and make it SUCH a huge big deal.

Earths Axis is changing consently all the time, as such a day is infact
never 24 hours, its always a few minuets either under or over (in terms of
a full rotation of the planet).

LULS at all the 2012 doom says and their randomness about Earth coming
off its axis and planets lining up will kill us...when it happens all the
time anyway

I completely agree the media constantly want to keep people in a state of fear..I guess it is easier to manipulate the scared.

was wondering why yesterday was a flash, but today was like 2 days