Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day

ailnlv writes "Days on Earth just got shorter. The recent earthquake in Chile shifted the planet's axis by about 8 cm and shortened days by 1.26 microseconds 'The changes can be modeled, though they're difficult to detect physically given their small size. ... Some changes may be more obvious, and islands may have shifted. ... Santa Maria Island off the coast near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, may have been raised 2 meters (6 feet) as a result of the latest quake ...'"

Great!

[MichaelSmith]

I can go home a few microseconds early today.

Now I'm late!

[Subm]

Crap, I was going to post something funny, but now I'm 1.26 microseconds late. Sorry, I gotta run...

Re:Did this affect climate

[larry bagina]

either way, it's anthropogenic.

Re:Did this affect climate

[biryokumaru]

Man, I checked out that pizza [aclu.org] link in your sig, and that is so cool! I wish the pizza place would be that good around here. I live in NYC and I can't even get them to leave their car to deliver pizza to my door, let alone all those other handy features they show there.

How often do such quakes occur?

[Opportunist]

I mean, don't forget that a day only has 86,400 seconds (give or take...). One such quake doesn't really matter. A hundred won't. A million will start to matter. A billion definitly will.

And of course, they don't happen every day but, well, a billion years ain't that long if you're a planet...

Re:What's with the red headline bar?

[Tynin]

It means that no one had posted anything to the comments of the story yet. And if you are a /. regular it's really a secret troll code telling you to rush in to comment about frosty piss and checking the post anonymously button while praying to the FSM that you beat all the other cowards to it. ;)

FFS!

[Foobar of Borg]

Oh, for fuck's sake! I've got too much shit to do already! And now, I have 1.26 microseconds less to do it in??!! Scheisse! Of course, maybe I shouldn't post on slashdot. Maybe that would save more than 1.26 microseconds.

Re:Did this affect climate

[Anonymous Coward]

I knew it! I blame the political party I'm not affiliated with.

Re:FFS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously! Think of all the things you could do with all that time:

- Make love to your wife
- List all of Pat Robertson's positive traits
- Use WinMo before freaking out and throwing your phone out the window

C'mon people, this is valuable time here!

Re:FFS!

[feepness]

Oh, for fuck's sake! I've got too much shit to do already! And now, I have 1.26 microseconds less to do it in??!! Scheisse! Of course, maybe I shouldn't post on slashdot. Maybe that would save more than 1.26 microseconds.

You could make love to your girlfriend a couple fewer times per week.

Re:I know we love sensationalist headlines, but

[The Wild Norseman]

Remember, this is only what a model predicts, unlike what the headline suggests.

Lemme guess: they used the Quake II engine?

I'm no Mathematologist

[dmomo]

But according to my calculations, all we have to do is set our calendars back a day... ... in 188,253,750 (ish) years.

I wonder how the PS3 will handle this.

Re:GPS affected?

[Anonymous Coward]

A James Bond inch? How awesome!

I say everyone

[Korbeau]

People of Earth, at 18:00 GMT March 10 we all jump at the same time and regain our microsecond!

Will it affect global climate?

[NotQuiteReal]

Will it affect global climate?

Yes - the days are shorter, therefore less sunlight per day, ergo - global cooling!

Re:GPS affected?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, if we cluster bomb Santa Maria Island, the bombs will strike 2 meters early. And, the Santa Marians will have to dig their bunkers 2 meters deeper. In fact, I just saw a video of Hitler upset about this on youtube, he was pretty vexxed about it.

Re:Did this affect climate

[93 Escort Wagon]

I knew it! I blame the political party I'm not affiliated with.

You clueless dolt - it's patently obvious the fault of the political party you ARE affiliated with!

Re:Maybe this is why...

[Anonymous Coward]

It did not go down. It was a hardware issue.

That's what she said

Re:Did this affect climate

[Anonymous Coward]

Q. What do all ice ages have in common?

A. They never happened! That's what they have in common, they have all been concocted by scientists with an agenda to undermine scripture.

And for all those who think that this earthquake wasn't caused by Man ... well it was! Fornication, homosexuality, feminism, democracy, drug-taking, violent video games, on-line porn, science, charity, freedom of speech, blashpemy, etc. etc. all these evils will not go unpunished!

Re:Did this affect climate

[Mitchell314]

It's the fault of both the parties, you sheeple!

Re:Great!

[derGoldstein]

Sir, please don't bring your heliocentric propaganda into this scientific discussion.

Re:FFS!

[Mitchell314]

Just an *obvious* reminder, but Slashdot posters don't have girlfriends.

Re:I say everyone

[jdc18]

No no no, you just need the chinese to do it

Re:Great!

[ae1294]

I hear talk on 4chan that he's a witch! Ye best not be speaking with-um again less ye too be dragged before the inquisition!

Re:I say everyone

[derGoldstein]

I wonder... Compare the total weight of the entire chinese population to the total weight of the entire population of the US. Who's heavier?

Re:Great!

[TapeCutter]

"Hu, that's pretty interesting but what's a nutron star again?"

Irresistible bait for spelling Nazi's.

Re:I say everyone

[H0p313ss]

If the US jumped a microsecond after China then the US would act as the wall and the earth would bounce into the opposite top corner pocket, haven't you ever played pool before.

Dude, you're doing it all wrong, you want to put ENGLISH on the ball.

Re:How often do such quakes occur?

[Anonymous Coward]

A billion years is a long time for a planet, seeing as how the Earth is roughly only 6000 years old.

Re:Did this affect climate

[AGMW]

Q. What do all ice ages have in common?

A. They never happened! That's what they have in common, they have all been concocted by scientists with an agenda to undermine scripture.

And for all those who think that this earthquake wasn't caused by Man ... well it was! Fornication, homosexuality, feminism, democracy, drug-taking, violent video games, on-line porn, science, charity, freedom of speech, blashpemy, etc. etc. all these evils will not go unpunished!

Cool ... so how does this work then? Do we just pick our favourite 5 or something? OK ... give me a fornication, drug-taking, on-line porn, with a side of violent video games, and good God why not, throw in some blasphemy!

Re:How often do such quakes occur?

[Kaleidoscopio]

6000 years? Where did you come up with that number? Earth's age is around 4.5 billion years. 6000 years would be the age of the Homo Sapiens or something similar...

Everyone stand up

[caywen]

I think if everyone in the world stands up and raises their arms for 10 seconds once per year, we can compensate for this.

Re:Did this affect climate

[krou]

Would that be The People's Front of Judea?

Re:Great!

[dkh2]

And what do we do with a witch?

Re:Great!

[dkh2]

Doesn't matter anyway. Everything revolves around me. I am the center of the universe, and I can prove it.

Re:Did this affect climate

[natehoy]

That lot of bastards? No, it's the People's Judean Front. Next you'll be thinking it was the Judean People's Front or something stupid like that.

Re:Great!

[wcb4]

Burn them!!!!

Re:Even we can affect the length of a day

[natehoy]

It all depends on who you are. Southwest obviously thinks that Kevin Smith would have a measurable effect.

Re:Did this affect climate

[imaque]

What I want to know is, if one were to measure all the energy released from burning all the books in the Library of Congress, how many Libraries of Congress would it total?

Re:Great!

[Dishevel]

Burn them!!!!

No.

We nuke them from orbit. It is the only way to be sure.

Obligatory XKCD Post

[zummit]

http://www.xkcd.com/162/ [xkcd.com]