Posted on 01/01/2005 9:38:48 PM PST by Coleus
Beyond killing tens of thousands and unleashing a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, the twinned earthquake and tsunami that struck Southeast Asia Sunday altered the angle of the Earth on its axis, moved the North Pole, pushed walls of water throughout all the world's oceans and shifted the soil as far away as Newark, researchers are reporting.
Scientists said yesterday they are looking beyond the tragedy to try to extract meaning from an event of such magnitude. They want to learn how the Earth responds as a system to one of Nature's terrible jolts. And they wonder about the Earth's resilience.
Calculations performed by Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California show that the quake sped up the rotation of the Earth and enlarged its wobble, causing the length of a day to shrink permanently by 3 millionths of a second. It also moved the North Pole 1 inch, he found.
Researchers at the Lamont-Doherty facility in New York, part of Columbia University, have been tracking earthquakes for decades and say their instruments showed that the quake rang the Earth like a bell. Seismic waves emanated from the epicenter, like ripples moving out from a pebble thrown onto a pond surface.
Armbruster, the Lamont-Doherty seismologist, said that, though he hasn't completed his analysis, he believes the quake moved the soil in the Newark and greater metropolitan area by a half- inch. The temblor on the other side of the world pushed the ground up that far, then back down the same distance. The movement was so swift, it was not noticed by residents of the region, he said.
A well-studied 1964 quake in Alaska of a greater magnitude moved the ground in New York up 2 inches and then down 2 inches, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I remember reading somewhere that technically, the moon does not revolve around the earth, but the earth and moon revolve together around a common point. this point is close to but not exactly the rotational axis of the earth. The result of this is that the earth tends to move side to side in its orbit.
Is this true? Just curious, and wide awake at 5:20 a.m.
The Pacific has a spreading center also, but it is the East Pacific rise, and part of it has been shoved under the west coast of North America.
The ridges have active volcanic zones near their centerlines, which create new plate, the old goes under the continents or other ocean plates in the oceanic trenches.
Because the spreading rates are uneven down the length of the ridges, there are numerous transform faults cross cutting the ridges.
In most instances, the oceanic plates push the continental plates around.
BTTT!!!!!
Does that mean Santa will have a new Zip Code this year?
I had to ponder this part, though:
"The total angular momentum of the earth moon system, which is spin angular momentum plus the orbital angular momentum, is constant. (The Sun plays apart also) Friction of the oceans caused by the tides is causing the Earth to slow down a tiny bit each year. This is approximately two milliseconds per century causing the moon to recede by about 4 centimeters per year. As the Earth slows down, the Moon must recede to keep the total angular momentum a constant."
Angular momentum relative to what - the Earth, or the Sun? I am having trouble visualizing how the spin of the earth would affect the angular momentum in either case. But when I think about it, he must have meant the angular momentum relative to the Sun (center of mass of the Sun-Earth system).
It seems that the mass of the rotating earth away from the sun has a bigger moment arm than the mass of the earth of closest to the sun, so the faster the earth is spinning, the greater the angular momentum relative to the sun. The "away" mass adds and the "near" mass subtracts, right?
I've never really thought about which way the earth is rotating around the sun, looking from Polaris. It must be CCW, the same way the Earth is rotating on it's axis.
Isn't that backwards? Wouldn't annular eclipses be more likely when the moon is further (future) than closer (past)?
Perhaps Y2K disaster planning should become a permanent part of every family's survival packace? Granted, there was no survival package that could have helped the majority of the tsunami victims. But survival provisions should be a part of every household. Complacency is the biggest enemy of survival.
Why do they use one AU (radius) instead of two AU (Diameter)?
That would be Magnetic North. True North has the same fixation, no matter where the continent is. It has been documented in archaeological testing that Magnetic North wanders all over the place and only appears to return to the same area about once every 8,000 years (if I am remembering my archaeological science correctly)
How far apart are Magnetic North and True North?
That sure is interesting. Thanks for the ping.
Correct. Here is a diagram showing this reationship:
http://baby.indstate.edu/gga/gga_cart/barycen1.gif
Look here for a more in depth discussion:
GOOD QUESTION! I bet, since we've created empty (emptier) zones where we've tapped, that this temblor caused some subtle shifting allowing lower and/or undiscovered pools of oil to seep into those zones.
A net win for oil production!
Just asking cause I am.
Even though the Sun plays apart in all this, the total angular momentum of the Earth/Moon system must be conserved. Thusly if the Earth slows down it must impart a delta to the orbit angular momentum of the Moon keeping the total system conserved.
'What on earth do you mean by "big boom?"'
Big boom - Michael Moore doing a belly-flop into the ocean.
Big Bang - The earth spitting out Michael Moore after the belly-flop.
Yup. :-)
You've got the angular momentum of the Moon orbiting the Earth, and the angular momentum of the Earth rotating on it's axis, and the angular momentum of the Earth/Moon orbiting around the Sun.
I am thinking that what the author was talking about was the sum of all three.
Does this mean.......
If your work week remains 40 hours, you will be over worked. Your holidays and vacation days will be shortened and you will in effect be getting less time off.
The auto workers union and the teamsters will attack the problem by year end by insisting on new work rules or perhaps more time off. The American working man will thus become even less competetive.
The resulting loss of income will surely result in an increase in the deficit as the GDP declines.
Thank you so much for all the information!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
