How do Earthquakes have an impact on the Earth's axial rotation?
Jul 29, 2010
in
Earthquake Questions
I heard about this but I’m not sure how they have an impact on the Earth’s axial rotation. They said these earthquakes cause the Earth to speed up in axial rotation and there was one today; I hope to God and in my heart, no innocent people were caught in it. That would be bad. Would we have to skip a second or make them internally shorter on the other hand?
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
One comment
Virga on July 29, 2010 at 10:46 pm
You are correct. A large earthquake can cause a very minor shift in the Earth’s axial tilt and rotation. It isn’t the force of the earthquake that does this, but rather the associated shift in mass in the crust. Since the earth (underneath the lithosphere) is just a big, slowly convecting fluid, its mass can shift about, altering the shape and rotation of the planet.