Japan’s earthquake shifted balance of the planet

Last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan has actually moved the island closer to the United States and shifted the planet's axis.

The quake caused a rift 15 miles below the sea floor that stretched 186 miles long and 93 miles wide, according to the AP. The areas closest to the epicenter of the quake jumped a full 13 feet closer to the United States, geophysicist Ross Stein at the United States Geological Survey told The New York Times.

The world's fifth-largest, 8.9 magnitude quake was caused when the Pacific tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet (see NASA's before and after photos at right). The quake also shifted the earth's axis by 6.5 inches, shortened the day by 1.6 microseconds, and sank Japan downward by about two feet. As Japan's eastern coastline sunk, the tsunami's waves rolled in.

Why did the quake shorten the day? The earth's mass shifted towards the center, spurring the planet to spin a bit faster. Last year's massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile also shortened the day, but by an even smaller fraction of a second. The 2004 Sumatra quake knocked a whopping 6.8 micro-seconds off the day.

After the country's 1995 earthquake, Japan placed high-tech sensors around the country to observe even the slightest movements, which is why scientists are able to calculate the quake's impact down to the inch. "This is overwhelmingly the best-recorded great earthquake ever," Lucy Jones, chief scientist for the Multi-Hazards project at the U.S. Geological Survey, told The Los Angeles Times.

The tsunami's waves necessitated life-saving evacuations as far away as Chile. Fisherman off the coast of Mexico reported a banner fishing day Friday, and speculated that the tsunami knocked sealife in their direction.

Of interest also, it happen when the tide was at it's lowest point.Six hours later and the disaster would have been worst, as impossible as that may seem.

Reactions over Nuclear Plant problems.

I find it comical how all these countries that have been using nuclear power, and planning to use more nuclear power have, in the past few days, made public statements of how they are halting their future nuclear plans and are re-checking the safety of all their current plants. All because the Japanese, whose nuke plants are like 45 years old are about to have friggin meltdown.

So in other words, it takes a catastrophe somewhere in order for governments to take a closer look at their own power plants and where they put them.

What a crappy reactive state of being.

Come on Stephen, can you think of ever a time when a government was proactive to ANYTHING?

They ar finding contamination in the water. Foreign countries are pulling out their people. Anyone know what's the worst that can happen from this?

jspyd3rx wrote:They ar finding contamination in the water. Foreign countries are pulling out their people. Anyone know what's the worst that can happen from this?

1. Less radioactive foreigners
2. Little to no effect on sealife. Since ocean water is full of potassium and calcium in the form of salts, this lowers the chance of an animal's body taking up radioactive particles by mistake. Though, I'm holding out on Godzilla.

3. Japanese schoolgirls mutate INTO tentacle monsters, throwing the entire porn ecosystem out of whack.

You guys are wrong and going straight to hell! That being said; hope the price of a PS3 freaking goes down.

No Sir. Playstation released a statement RAISING their prices by 50 bucks. All proceeds go to the recovery in Japan.

Square Enix is turning their servers back on for the MMO I play. They're turning off their A/C and dimming the lights to make 10% savings (lol).

some awesome: http://badassoftheweek.com/akaiwa.html

aosol wrote:

jspyd3rx wrote:They ar finding contamination in the water. Foreign countries are pulling out their people. Anyone know what's the worst that can happen from this?

1. Less radioactive foreigners
2. Little to no effect on sealife. Since ocean water is full of potassium and calcium in the form of salts, this lowers the chance of an animal's body taking up radioactive particles by mistake. Though, I'm holding out on Godzilla.

Godzilla would be epic