CHILE EARTHQUAKE MAY HAVE SHORTENED DAYS
Seventh strongest quake in recorded history may have shifted Earth’s axis
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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 microseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. One microsecond is one-millionth of a second long.
“This change should be permanent,” Gross told SPACE.com today…read more