Indeed, due to the recent earthquake in Chile, the distribution of mass on the Earth has slightly changed, most likely resulting in slightly shorter days by 1.26 microseconds. It has been estimated that the Earth figure axis has moved by about 8 centimeters.
Similar effects have been caused to the Earth by previous earthquakes, like the 2004 Indian Ocean quake.
But because of tidal effects of the moon, the length of a day increases at an average of 15 microseconds per year, so neither earthquake will have any significant long lasting effect.
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It's great -- we had an email going round the office trying to work out how much this lifts our effective salary by (since we're paid the same for a slightly shorter working day)!
ReplyDeleteUnofrtunately, tides seem to increase the day by 15 microsecs per year, so, I'm afraid, we're working more for the same salary.
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