Getting your player ready...
The magnitude-8.9 earthquake that struck Japan on Friday moved the coastline and changed the balance of the planet. Global positioning stations closest to the epicenter jumped eastward by up to 13 feet.
Meanwhile, NASA scientists calculated that the redistribution of mass by the earthquake might have shortened the day by a couple of millionths of a second and tilted Earth’s axis slightly.
Such changes are not unusual, and even without earthquakes, changes in ocean currents and atmospheric conditions usually have even greater effects. “The Earth is always wobbling, and the length of the day is always changing,” said Richard S. Gross, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
