Chilean quake shifted Earth's axis - Sydney Morning Herald

[gary]

Article here -

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/chilean-quake-shifted-earths-axis-nasa-scientist-20100302-peqe.html?autostart=1

[middy]

"The axis about which the Earth's mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds"

Well there goes everyone's polar alignment. Time for a re-align. :P

[The_Joker]

Does it mean the astroid that comes close in 2012 will now hit

[Matt Wastell]

I briefly saw this on the news tonight
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth-20100301.html
Not surprising really but fascinating - I love an active planet (apart from the loss of life)

[leon]

Ah, I think the polar alignment of our mounts should be able to cope with it.

Leon

[TrevorW]

Gee mine will probably be spot on now

[Ric]

Add it to the Boxing day earthquake a few years back and we'll be down at the south pole soon. ;)

[Matt Wastell]

Ha!

[supernova1965]

Is this even possible is this serious I didn't think this would be possible from anything less than an Extinction level event like a comet.:confused2:

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: well just as well i havnt quite mastered polar aligning yet then hehe


:lol::lol: LOL Trevor i was thinking the same thing hehe :D

[TrevorW]

Jen did it move for you too

;);) :poke: say no more:rofl:

[TrevorW]

Warren the amount it moved is so so small

[gary]

Incredibly, even atmospheric and oceanic processes will subtly change it,
for example, ocean bottom pressure fluctuations. Keep in mind these
are minuscule changes.

See http://bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov/ggfc/sbm_cos.html
See http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AGUSM.G44A..02G

You might also find this article on the "Chandler wobble" of interest -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_wobble


See http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/18398/1/99-1877.pdf

Hope the above is of interest. :thumbsup:

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: oh yeah its always moving for me Trevor :rofl:

[pgc hunter]

kewl now the SDM will arrive some 30 odd microseconds earlier than it otherwise would have :party: