BS: Quake shortens earth day

Subject: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: gnu
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 02:29 PM

Here.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Amos
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 02:42 PM

"Richard Gross, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and colleagues calculated that Saturday's quake shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

The length of a day is the time it takes for the planet to complete one rotation - 86,400 seconds or 24 hours.

An earthquake can make Earth rotate faster by nudging some of its mass closer to the planet's axis, just as ice skaters can speed up their spins by pulling in their arms. Conversely, a quake can slow the rotation and lengthen the day if it redistributes mass away from that axis, Gross said Tuesday.

Gross said the calculated changes in length of the day are permanent. So a bunch of big quakes could add up to make the day shorter, "but these changes are very, very small." "


Kinda ironic, doncher know, that the Earth itself is snubbing Earth Day by cutting it off at the tip...



A

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 02:44 PM

Schtip

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Alice
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 02:44 PM

There was just a 3.2 quake centered in southeastern Missouri. Is the New Madrid Fault area prepared for the big one?

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 02:55 PM

Ain't NOBODY prepared for the big one, Alice. Just think, that could be the warning sign for the Yellowstone Caldera!

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Alice
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 03:01 PM

Yes, I think about that quite often.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: bobad
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 04:30 PM

We had a 3.8 last Saturday. According to this site http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/aware/follies.html there are approximately 2,600 quakes a day.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 05:15 PM

They can measure 'one millionth of a second' ?????? !!!!!!

Cripes!

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 05:20 PM

Yes, they can measure that small...and I NEED that extra bit of sleep!

Everyone...on my count... stomp to the left and give it back!

One....two...THREE!


there....that's better

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: paula t
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 05:59 PM

A shorter day eh? That explains why I didn't get all my work done! I feel much better now. No more guilt!

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 06:07 PM

A map shown by the National Earthquake Information Center showed that there were about 190 quakes around the Pacific Rim at any one time.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: gnu
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 06:10 PM

Yes... better get yer shit taken care of NOW. There is not much time left.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: mousethief
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 06:23 PM

If the New Madrid lets loose the Mississippi basin is going to be in a world of hurt. Baton Rouge will be totally wiped out if that creaking and groaning levy lets go. Among other disasters up and down the River. Downtown Memphis could slide right off its famous bluff and make a much larger Mud Island.

But what about the SIZE of that hummer in Chile? 8.8! That's just unimaginable. No wonder it slapped the earth out of whack.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 06:37 PM

So if the Earth's day is now shorter, the Earth's year most be shorter, and thus we will not be as old as we thought we would be at the end of the year. Neat!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: gnu
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 06:43 PM

Hahahaha... Charley... if it spins faster, we we get younger?

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 07:40 PM

Gnu-

Not exactly but we don't get as old! LOL

Now we've all learned that "humans" in isolation deprivation tanks revert to a 25 hour daily cycle, instead of our standard "24 hours." which suggests that the world was once rotating a whole lot slower. What sped it up? Was it one of those pesky astroids hitting us just right like a billiard ball, or was it a series of massive earthquakes? Or was it our molten core doing something entirely weird? No one knows much about what controls the convection currents within the Earth's core. Not even the Shadow!

But Amos knows!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: PoppaGator
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 08:46 PM

Heard this on the radio earlier. I have a few questions:

Does every earthquake make the earth denser (i.e., same mass but slightly smaller, packed into a smaller tighter space)? Are there no phenomena that might loosen the globe back up ~ in other words, are the days inevitably getting shorter, with no potential for reversal?

What about the matter that's been shot off into space for the past half-century? We're told that there is LOTS of "space junk" orbiting around the globe. I would think that the loss of all that crap ~ entire spacecraft in a few cases ~ would reduce the size of the planet (by reducing its mass) at least as much as a single quake would shrink the globe by compacting its substance without reducing its mass at al.

And then, I believe I have ONE answer: that millionth-of-a-second reduction in time is NOT measurable, at least not yet, not with currently available measurement tools. This theory has been postulated on the basis of calculation, not measurement.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Alice
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 09:18 PM

PoppaGator,

go back and read the article linked in the first message and the quote in the second message in this thread. It will answer your question.

Also see this article:

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC


"Currently, scientists can measure the length of an Earth day with an accuracy of only about 20 millionths of a second, so the shortened day caused by the Chile earthquake can be estimated but not measured."

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 05:18 AM

The first post also says:
"Conversely, a quake can slow the rotation and lengthen the day if it redistributes mass away from that axis".

Regarding the loss of mass in the form of space stations etc., these will be counteracted to some extent by the combined mass of meteorites landing.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 02:53 PM

So.... we could slow the whole works down by jettisoning mass into space?

Or redistributing mass to the north and south?

No Problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 03:04 PM

See... now follow me... Wiener dogs don't have a LOT of mass, but if they were redistributed north and south, given the fact that that are so much closer to the core of the earth than most dogs, it might rebalance the whole equation.

I haven't done the math, but, empirically, I have a hunch that it might work.

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 11:03 PM

"The length of a day is the time it takes for the planet to complete one rotation - 86,400 seconds or 24 hours."

I am SO grateful to have that cleared up at last. I've been confused all my life, not knowing what a day is.

What would we do without the govt and media to keep us informed?

Subject: RE: BS: Quake shortens earth day
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 12:11 AM

Does this mean that I have longer to live? What should I do with that extra time? With enough quakes will I be able to sing one last song? :-}