Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis & shortened length of day.
"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 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis," NASA officials said in a Monday update.
The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues to determine the effects of the Chile earthquake effect also found that it should have moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm or 27 milliarcseconds)."
NASA officials? Computer models? Say, wasn't James Hansen a NASA scientists?
Moving along...
"Strong earthquakes have altered Earth's days and its axis in the past. The 9.1 Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, should have shortened Earth's days by 6.8 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 2.76 inches (7 cm, or 2.32 milliarcseconds)."
Unlike 'climate change', which impacts a planet's ecosystem over hundreds, or even thousands of years, pinpointing the Earth's tilt and rate of spin is actually a pretty immediate, verifiable scientific experiment. The ancient Mayans, Chinese & Greeks were pretty good at it, and we've improved the technology a bit with lunar laser beams & geo-synchronous satellites.
And surely this 'shifted axis' has far more effect on this planet's climate than anything us hairless, bi-pedal primates with large brains and opposable thumbs can implement.
That, and the nearby star off our horizon.
So, someone please tackle Al Gore and restrain him before he decides to go and make a bigger fool of himself with a queer imitation of Atlas.