Aftereffects of the Chilean Earthquake

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Make no mistake — the Chilean earthquake was massive.  It was over 500 times stronger than the eathquake that hit Haiti — the salient difference being that it hit out in the ocean, near — but not in 00 a region that has earthquake preparedness (building codes, etc).

How massive was the Chilean quake?

Well, it threw the Earth off its axis.

By about 3 inches.  Making the day about 1.26 microseconds shorter (1 microsecond = 1 millionth of a second).

Still, it's not as bad as the 2004 earthquake that created the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.  That shortened the day by 6.8 microseconds.

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