Good morning!

[kyrielle]

On my way to work soon but just had to share this link:

Quake may have made Earth wobble.

Nah, not apocalyptically; just interesting. But it is interesting, at least.

Comments

[pelogrande.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. There was a sudden change in the distribution of mass over the Earth's surface, so its rotation is going to change. It's remarkably small, but it's there.

Of course, we've already got all sorts of wobbling going on. The Precession of the Equinoxes is a caused by a change in where our axis of rotation is oriented. Basically, this means that right now our axis points to Polaris, the North Star. In a few thousand years, we won't be pointed there anymore. This change also alters when exactly the seasons occur, so northern winter will end up happening in June someday, though our calendars will likely be obselete by then. This cycle takes about 26,000 years to complete, and is one of the causes of ice ages.

Um, anyway, you probably didn't need to hear all that. But the little wobble here is just going to become a minor facet of the wobbles we've already got.

[kyrielle]

Strangely enough, the linked article said most of that. I just thought it was interesting and thought others might want to see it. :)

[canyoncat.livejournal.com]

Fascinating