Earth Axis' Inclination May Have Changed

[Vesko]

Today I read in the local press that scientists from the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology are thinking that the recent earthquake disaster in Southern Asia has changed the tilt of the earth's axis (inclination) from the current 23.5 degrees. But many months will be required to conclusively confirm if this is so, because long observations of celestial bodies are necessary. I didn't see this news anywhere else, but I thought that would be interesting to share.

[Kestrel]

Enzo Boschi seems like an intresting person. Perhaps he will speak up some more ?

I don't think people have been intrested in identifying a reason for the earthquake, besides the fact that "it happens due to tectonic plates". Which indeed it dose.

[Vesko]

The major reason seem to be planetary gas chambers that support the continents. This is not currently believed by mainstream scientists.

See Why Don't We Consider the Lost Continents Seriously? and The Coming Disasters in the Planetary History forum.

[bomohwkl]

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4137727.stm

Earthquake 'redraws the map'

The force of the earthquake was probably so great that it made the Earth wobble on its axis
The devastating earthquake that struck the Indian Ocean probably caused some islands to move by several metres.
The massive thrust of the tectonic plates may have heaved the Indian Ocean floor towards Indonesia by about 15 metres, seismologists think.

The movement is likely to have altered the geography of islands like Sumatra.

The force of the earthquake was probably also so great that it made the Earth wobble on its axis and cut our day length by fractions of a second.

Building pressure

The earthquake follows more than a century and a half of growing pressure between the Indian tectonic plate and the Burma microplate, upon which Sumatra, Nicobar and the Andaman islands sit.

"In terms of the specific position of Sumatra, it will have moved," Bill McGuire a geophysicist at University College London, UK, told Nature magazine. "Things have shifted literally within minutes."

It is not only likely that these islands have shifted geographically, they may also be higher or lower than before, Professor McGuire believes.

Since the Burma microplate shot upwards during the quake, the Andaman and Nicobar islands are likely to have been elevated. Slightly further from the fault itself, water levels indicate that the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh has sunk.

A team from the Southern California Earthquake Hazards Assessment Project (SCEHA) plan to visit the area to examine the changes with the help of the global positioning survey.

"The work will take weeks or months to complete," said Dr Kenneth Hudnut of SCEHA.

Changing wobble

According to US scientists, the deadly earthquake was forceful enough to accelerate the Earth's rotation, and may have made the planet wobble on its axis.

Richard Gross, a geophysicist with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, believes a shift of mass toward the Earth's centre during the quake caused the planet to spin three microseconds faster and tilt about an inch on its axis.

The Earth's poles travel a circular path that normally varies by about 33 feet, so an added wobble of an inch is likely to cause long-term effects.

"That continual motion is just used to changing," Dr Gross said. "The rotation is not actually that precise. The Earth does slow down and change its rate of rotation."

Scientists have long theorized that changes on the Earth's surface such as tide and groundwater shifts and weather could affect its spin, but they have not had the measurements to prove it.

"Even for a very large event, the effect is very small," said seismologist Hiroo Kanamori from the California Institute of Technology. "It is very difficult to change the rotation rate substantially."