Quake Changes Earth's Rotation, Moves Islands 917
kernel panic attack writes "This week's deadly Asian Quake and Tsunami may have been so powerful,
that it changed the rate of Earth's rotation. In a Reuters article,
a NASA geophysicist theorizes that the quake compacted the Earth enough
to speed up the planet's rotation by 3 microseconds. A second
article
says the quake moved undersea tectonic plates by up to 98 feet, shifting
islands near Sumatra out to sea an unknown distance. Also, a
USGS team wants images from commercial satellite operators to
help pinpoint coastline damage. Lastly, an interesting article from the Australian Spaceguard Survey about the need for a Tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean. The author comments that tsunami warnings may not help much, as people often flock to the coastline to see the giant waves." The current estimated death toll is now nearly 70,000; Amazon and Google, among others, have added front-page links to simplify donating to the disaster relief effort.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Damnit! First daylight savings time and now THIS? (Score:1, Funny)
Wait... (Score:1, Funny)
Ugh! (Score:1, Funny)
Equalizes out (Score:4, Funny)
Thats alright, it all works out in the end. You see everytime we launch a explortion vehicle we loose a nanoscopic amount of rotation speed.
Re:What is the impact? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Makes me wonder (Score:5, Funny)
3 microseconds less? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rotation (Score:4, Funny)
mass hysteria setting in... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:It's all about angular momentum (Score:3, Funny)
still, i'm going to lose some weight, so i can help the earth pick back up some spin.
Re:Apple Too (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What is the impact? (Score:5, Funny)
You press the degauss button. It'll look funny for a few seconds but then it'll click and be fine.
Yeah (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Donate some money! (Score:5, Funny)
But if one were, he'd be about 100 feet farther away now.
Re:So, you're saying... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Indian ocean isnt the only place one is needed (Score:3, Funny)
Clearly, this is a job for Skynet!
Almost - it's the world maps that are upside down (Score:2, Funny)
Why else would all the continents have tips on their upper part, as if the mass was dripping down? (turn your maps upside down to see this!).
Happy Holidays!
http://www.origamy.com.br/xmas2005 [origamy.com.br]
Re:Apple Too (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Never? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Micro gravity (Score:1, Funny)