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Old 12-29-2004, 04:04 PM  
TheMob
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: 2006
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Quake Changes Earth's Rotation, Moves Islands

"This week's deadly Asian Quake and Tsunami may have been so powerful,
that it changed the rate of Earth's rotation. In a Reuters article,
a NASA <A HREF="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=IESG1YFI1NHI2CRBAELCF FA?type=scienceNews&amp;storyID=7195443">geophysic ist theorizes that the quake compacted the Earth</a> enough
to speed up the planet's rotation by 3 microseconds. A second article
says the <A HREF="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=IESG1YFI1NHI2CRBAELCF FA?type=scienceNews&amp;storyID=7194479">quake moved undersea tectonic plates</a> by up to 98 feet, shifting
islands near Sumatra out to sea an unknown distance. Also, a
<A HREF="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/">USGS team wants images from commercial satellite operators</a> to
help pinpoint coastline damage. Lastly, an interesting article from the Australian Spaceguard Survey about the <A HREF="http://www1.tpgi.com.au/users/tps-seti/spacegd7.html">need for a Tsunami warning system</a> in the Indian Ocean. The author comments that tsunami warnings may not help much, as people often flock to the coastline to see the giant waves."</i> The current estimated death toll is now nearly 70,000; Amazon, Apple and Google, among others, have added front-page links to simplify donating to the disaster relief effort.

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