> Just a bit of an odd question... > I hear in the Media that the earth quake sped the rotation of the earth > up.. > Can anyone confirm this?
Any time any mass shifts inwards or outwards from the Earth's center, there will be a change in the rotational speed of the planet. Angular momentum must be conserved. In this case, a large chunk of the Earth's crush apparently moved downward, which forces the planet to speed up slightly in order to conserve momentum ... the same thing that happens when a spinning figure skater draws in his or her arms. > Does this mean that we will not need to 'insert leap seconds' for a > while, or does it mean that we will need to retract leap seconds that > have been added? The change is too small to make much difference. I recall reading that it is about 1.6 microseconds per day, which wouldn't make a difference for about 1700 years. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
