chile's+earthquake!!+important+detail

maria fernanda: here is a video that says a very important detail of chile's earthquake that affected all the world!! []

Chile earthquake changed the Earth's axis BBC Science

The powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.8 that struck Chile could have tilted the axis of the Earth and therefore the days are shorter.

The earthquake caused a tilt in the Earth's axis. That's the conclusion Richard Gross, a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the U.S. space agency NASA.

The scientist used a complex model which obtained a preliminary calculation shows that the quake could have shortened 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond equals one millionth of a second) the length of each day on Earth.

What more surprised Dr. Gross, however, is how the earthquake might have tilted the axis of the Earth.

According to the researcher the quake would have tilted the earth's axis at 2.7 milliseconds of arc (about 8 centimeters).

This same model estimated that the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of magnitude 9.1 in 2004 may have shortened the length of the days of 6.8 microseconds and tilted Earth's axis in 2.32 milliseconds of arc (about 7 centimeters).

The scientist said that while the earthquake in Chile was smaller than that of Sumatra, Chile would have bent the shaft a little more land for two reasons.

"First of all, unlike the Sumatra earthquake was located near the Ecuador, Chile earthquake was located in the middle latitudes of the Earth, which could more effectively change the figures of axis" says Dr. Gross.

"Secondly, he added, the fault responsible for the 2010 earthquake in Chile descends beneath the surface of the Earth at an angle slightly steeper than the fault responsible for the earthquake of 2004."

"This makes the failure of Chile is more effective to move the mass of the earth vertically and therefore more effective in changing the Earth's axis figures," he explains.

"As a dancer"

As explained to BBC Science Dr. Alejandro Gangui, a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, it is expected that a movement so strong in the earth's crust cause such changes in the way moves the planet's mass.

Any of these movements of large amounts of mass of plate tectonics if they caused a small disturbance in the dynamics of the Earth as a cosmic body Dr. Alejandro Gangui "We know the Earth is not a completely rigid body, but is subject to many disturbances according to seasonal effects," explains the scientist.

"So a plate movement as he was at the origin of both the 2004 earthquake and the 2010 course will change the distribution of mass in the planet."

"It's like the effects of the dancer that when turning on one foot and with open arms, turning his movement is slow and when it closes faster."

Now with the Earth, says the scientist, went something like this, because his was spinning faster by the change in the distribution of matter in the equatorial zone.

As explained by Dr. Gangui, although these changes in the position of the Earth are important is unlikely that we detect.

"The truth is that any of these movements of large amounts of mass of plate tectonics if they caused a small disturbance in the dynamics of the Earth as a cosmic body."

"But it is notoriously difficult and that we can detect it in our everyday life," he adds.