Quake shook Earth to core, say scientists
Friday, December 31, 2004, 17:03 - Science
The quake that set off the devastating tsunami last Sunday had bigger impact than anticipated, according to The Independent. The Earth is now spinning a little faster than before.A NASA scientist believes that a shift of mass towards the Earth's centre caused the planet to spin three microseconds - three millionths of a second - faster. It also caused the planet to tilt around 2.5cm on its axis. The added wobble is unlikely to have any long-term effects.
The forcing of one tectonic plate beneath the edge of another had the effect of making the Earth more compact and spinning faster, but the changes were probably too slight to be detected by global positioning satellite networks.
Geologists of the US Geological Survey said changes on the Earth's surface were more noticeable, shifting the island of Sumatra 36 meters to the south-west. Some of the smaller islands off the south-west coast of Sumatra may have moved to the south-west by about 20 meters.
