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[Phys-L] Re: earthquake



At 12:08 PM 12/27/2004,
Anthony Lapinski, you 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.

This is what the World's vibration looked like in Oklahoma yesterday
- a little under 1/8 inch amplitude.

<http://www.okgeosurvey1.gov/>

Can internal effects change the Earth's rotation?
You will easily answer this by comparison with the internal rearrangements
of a spinning ice-dancer's mass.
Small diurnal variations in the Earth's rotation rate are common place.



Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!