Tag Archives: japan quake

Japan Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days, Moved Axis

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The March 11, magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan may have shortened the length of each Earth day and shifted its axis. But don’t worry-you won’t notice the difference.

Using a United States Geological Survey estimate for how the fault responsible for the earthquake slipped, research scientist Richard Gross of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., applied a complex model to perform a preliminary theoretical calculation of how the Japan earthquake-the fifth largest since 1900-affected Earth’s rotation. His calculations indicate that by changing the distribution of Earth’s mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second). (more…)

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WHOI Experts Stress Lessons From Japan Earthquake

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While Japan’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake and accompanying tsunami represent a devastating natural disaster for the country’s residents, scientists should also seize upon the massive temblor as an important learning tool for future quakes around the world, including the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States, according to experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

WHOI geophysicist Jeff McGuire said such lessons may be particularly germane to residents of Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver–a region he said, could be subject to a similar quake/tsunami scenario. “Today’s earthquake happened on a subduction zone thrust fault where the Pacific plate subducts, or dives, under the Japanese islands,” he said. “Japan regularly has large earthquakes and tsunamis all along its east coast due to subduction. (more…)

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