Reset your watches?

[Red Cat Jenny]

I always find this stuff fascinating..

The huge Sumatra quake a few years ago was said by geologists to have vibrated the whole earth..

Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth

Tue Mar 2, 10:00 am ET

The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis," NASA officials said in a Monday update.

The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues to determine the effects of the Chile earthquake effect also found that it should have moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm or 27 milliarcseconds).

The Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis, which it spins around once every day at a speed of about 1,000 mph (1,604 kph).

The figure axis is the axis around which the Earth's mass is balanced. It is offset from the Earth's north-south axis by about 33 feet (10 meters).

Strong 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 (7 cm, or 2.32 milliarcseconds).

The Chile earthquake was much smaller than the Sumatran temblor, but its effects on the Earth are larger because of its location. Its epicenter was located in the Earth's mid-latitudes rather than near the equator like the Sumatran event.

The fault responsible for the 2010 Chile quake also slices through Earth at a steeper angle than the Sumatran quake's fault, NASA scientists said.

"This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth's mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis," NASA officials said.

Several major telescopes in Chile's Atacama Desert have escaped damage, according to the European Southern Observatory managing them.

The stuff of superstitions past I'm sure as well...

[Mission]

Ah, theory.

I'd like to see you reset your watch by 1.26 milliseconds. That's small enough to be dismissed as a measurement error. (NASA used to be cool back when they were focused on planning space flights but they have branched off in such weird directions that they seem like a government organization ripe for future budget saving measures to me...)

[theM.A.dDogge]

ok...but now do i get 1.26 milliseconds...MORE or LESS sleep in the morning????

[callenish gunner]

You get less .....he rest of us get to sleep in

[hitman]

Look on the bright side at least there was no need to declare a leap second! Aren't atomic clocks grand