The Day the world Quaked

Quakes of this magnitude are rare, happening perhaps once every couple of hundred years, the only one in the last hundred years to even come close to it was the 8.4 1964 Prince William Sound quake which occurred in Alaska, which also triggered a large tsunami.

6 months later, the damage caused to the earth is still being assessed. New information on changes to the earth as a result of the quake is astonishing and continues to flow in.

When the initial quake occurred it was so unusual in magnitude and nature that the computers used to make calculations of quake magnitudes and pinpoint their epicenter, choked initially on the math involved. Initial estimates put it in the 8.5+ category; however, after the calculation problems were ironed out, astonishingly, the quake turned out to be three times larger than initially estimated.

One thing that came to light not long after the data was analyzed, was that the earth began swaying like a bell, and still is. The release of such a massive burst of energy caused the earth to attain a slight wobble, like a spinning top when lightly tapped.

The North Pole shifted by 2.5 cm in an easterly direction from its original position, in fact almost everywhere on the globe showed movement from the massive jolt of the quake

The earth also changed shape, despite popular conceptions of the earth being a perfectly spherical marble floating in space, it is infact slightly egg shaped, flattish at the top and bulging at the equator by about 20+ kilometers. After the quake it was found the equatorial bulge had decreased by about 1 part in 10 billion, this may not seem like much but it is significant enough to alter our length of day by 2.8 microseconds.

Like an ice skater pulling in their arms to speed their rate of rotation, the earths decrease in bulge did the same, causing rotation to speed up, resulting in the length of day decreasing.

All these changes may seem very insignificant, but it must be remembered, the earth is a delicately balanced planet, weather patterns, climate, currents and its ability to support the variety of life that exists here are dependant on that balance being maintained, once that balance is even slightly shifted it effects every part of the whole system.

More immediate changes are evident in the habitats destroyed or altered by the devastating tsunami caused by the quake.

Many areas are now ecological disasters. It will be many years before this damage repairs itself.

When the effects of this quake on the earth are considered it is easy to look back 65 million years ago to the Cretaceous and imagine the devastating effects another massive release of energy had as asteroids impacted with this planet bringing about the extinction of the dinosaurs and associated fauna.

The 2004 quake and tsunami are small compared to that event, but provide insight into the global effects of such a catastrophe.

I would like to express my condolences to the families of victims of the Dec 26 tsunami.

Those who were lost will not be forgotten.

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