Chile Earthquake Alters Time

So how big, exactly, was the 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile on Sunday? So big that it shortened the length of a day on earth by 1.26 milliseconds, according to a scientist at NASA. The quake shifted Earth’s figure axis by about three inches (“The figure axis is the axis around which the Earth’s mass is balanced,” says SPACE.com—not the same as the north-south axis around which the planet rotates.) Larger earthquakes, like the 9.1 quake that caused the 2004 tsunami, have had less of an effect on the length of days; the reason for the Chilean quake’s effect is that it is farther away from the equator.