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. .. earthquakes can move the earth's axis shortening the days ...?

Washington, 2 mar (EFE).- El terremoto que estremeció Chile el pasado fin de semana puede haber mo vido el eje de la Tierra y acortado la duración de cada día, según un investigador de la agencia espacial estadounidense NASA.
Ecuador repatría a los compatriotas afectados por el terremoto en Chile y el Ministro de Interior culpa a las FFAA de la tardía respuesta Government after the earthquake of a replica of 5.6 degrees on the Richter scale shook central Chile.
Richard Gross, a scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (California), took the bills to determine how changed the Earth's rotation as a result of the earthquake in Chile, which had a magnitude of 8.8 degrees Richter scale.
According to a report, Gross and colleagues resorted to a complex model calculations and reached the preliminary conclusion that the strong shaking should have shortened the Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds. A microsecond is one millionth second.
But even more impressive is that according to computer calculations of Gross, would have moved the figure axis of the Earth, this is the line about which is the planet's mass balance, and may have strayed into 2 , 7 millarsegundos, this is about 8 inches.
The figure axis of the Earth is not the same as its north-south axis from pole to pole. Both lines are separated by about 10 meters.
Gross explained that the same model calculations concluded that a 9.1 degree magnitude earthquake occurred in Sumatra in 2004 should have shortened day length by 6.8 microseconds, and may have moved the figure axis 2.32 Earth millarsegundos, about 7 centimeters.
Gross said that even though the earthquake in Chile was much lower than that of Sumatra, may have changed much more the position of figure axis of the Earth for two reasons. One is that the Sumatra earthquake was located near Ecuador, while that of Chile occurred in mid-latitudes for which may have had greater impact on the diversion of the figure axis.
Secondly, the geological fault where the earthquake struck Chile enters the Earth at an angle slightly steeper than the fault that caused the 2004 earthquake in Sumatra. This makes Chile's failure gives can move vertically more effect, the land mass.
Any world event involving the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation, "agreed another expert from NASA, Benjamin Fong Chao, quoted by CNN.
The reason is that a strong earthquake moves massive amounts of rocks, which alters the distribution of the mass of the planet, he said.
Other events, however, may lengthen the days.


The situation was worse for small villages along the coast that were devastated by a Tsunami tidal wave and the fury of the waves rose up to 400 m in, leveled hundreds of homes located between Central Coast Llo-Lleo and the southern port of Talcahuano.

Islanders Chile Juan Fernández archipelago felt a slight tremor in the morning and continued to sleep without realizing that in a few minutes the island was devastated by the tsunami and the alert never came. In the morning they could see the damage the earthquake that was centered north of Concepción and when the tide began to rise was no alternative to the siren call warning of imminent danger of tsunami since the delay announcement left the residents without action . There, the islanders of Robinson Crusoe had to run to the hills desperate to no time to save a few belongings. A 16 m wave that swept everything in its path within minutes, cemeteries, churches, sports facilities and a school was reduced to floating loose boards and some government buildings disappeared.

Once the water receded the Robinson Crusoe island was flooded but this time of desolation and the mud was covered 3 km from the interior to the coast.