Friday, March 5th, 2010

A Quake That Shook the World?

USGS Shake Map of the February 27 Chile earthquake. USGS image.

Last week's powerful earthquake in Chile may have shifted the Earth's axis and changed the length of a day, according to NASA researchers. The magnitude 8.8 quake of February 27 was powerful enough to alter the position of the planet's figure axis, an imaginary line around which the mass of the planet rotates, by about 3 inches. That adds up to an Earth day that lasts about 1.26 microseconds less than it did before the earthquake. We'll talk about how geological processes can effect the planet's rotation, and how researchers model planetary movements.

Guests

Ross Stein
Geophysicist
U.S. Geological Survey
Menlo Park, California

Related Links

• JPL: Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days

Segment produced by:Flora Lichtman

Friday, March 5th, 2010

• A Quake That Shook the World?
• From Thought To Movement
• An Older Proto-Dino
• Persuasion, Energy, and Behavior
• Nuclear Technologies
• About a Mountain

Elsewhere on Sciencefriday.com

Explore More

• Planetary and Earth Sciences
• Geology