The Earth Has Been Knocked Off Its Axis ~ What Next?

[rattlesnakeroot]

The Chilean Earthquake was so frightening, and now we know that many coastal towns were washed away by a tsunami. There have also been huge numbers of large aftershocks

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Then I saw this factoid on the NBC Evening News and went "huh?" because I couldn't quite believe it, but NASA confirms it:

The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have

Comments

[spirit_serpenti]

It sounds scary, but it's not unusual for catastrophic earthquakes to shift Earth's axis. Last time this happened was during the 2004 Indian Ocean quake (and the subsequent tsunami). I don't think there's any reason for us to be worried.

I'm not a religious person and a I don't pray, but my heart goes out to all those affected by the earthquake and their families. Alas, nature is unpredictable. Such tragedies should serve to remind us that life is indeed short and there will always be forces stronger than us.

[rattlesnakeroot]

If only there was a way to keep these quakes from happening in the middle of the night - the worst possible time! They didn't even realize that the tsunamis were hitting their own coast until it was too late. I just hate to see all the destruction.

I didn't realize that the previous quake also affected the earth's axis. My husband told me the same thing when he came home today because he heard a discussion on the radio. Still - three inches off the axis is disturbing.

[ms_arithmancer]

A nighttime quake is bad for nearby victims of tsunamis, but on the other hand it is often good for people inland. No one is out driving, no one is in office buildings, etc.

But really, there is no good time for an 8.8 quake.

[ms_arithmancer]

8 centimeters sounds like a lot, in the sense that it is on a scale we can see with the naked eye. As a percent change in the angle, is is really, really tiny, on the order of 1 one-millionth of one percent. The reason this translates to a distance perceptible to the naked eye is that the earth's radius is some 6400 kilometers long, which is some 80,000,000 times the distance the axis shifted.

[rattlesnakeroot]

Yes, that puts it in perspective! :)