[Phys-L] Re: earthquake

[anngeorg at PACBELL.NET (Bernard Cleyet)]

There was a rather strong southern oscillation * in ~ 83 that slowed the
rotation; when it ended, it speeded up to normal.  If I remember
correctly this is due to a change in the elements of the inertial
tensor?    This was reported in the J. Science (AAAS)

*  El Ninyo

bc, typing by candle light (so far, 4 hr. w/o pwr.)  on a powerbook w/ a
ups, and who tends to believe what's in the J. Science

p.s. a geologist on Demo. Now also reported the below.  This is the
worst disaster since Kraktoa?


Anthony Lapinski wrote:

> I read a Yahoo news article from yesterday (Sunday) from the Asian
> Associated Press. In it the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute
> said that "all the planet is vibrating" from the quake, and that the quake
> even disturbed the Earth's rotation. Nothing more specific regarding this
> phenomena was mentioned.
>
> Can any internal force disrupt the Earth's rotation? And if the quake
> really changed the Earth's movement, is it large enough to detect? I know
> that tidal friction is slowing the Earth's rotation over time, but that's
> an external force from the Moon causing the water to rise/fall and hit the
> land masses.