[time-nuts] Result of Earth Quake speeds up earth?

[Anthony G. Atkielski]

> Just a bit of an odd question...
> I hear in the Media that the earth quake sped the rotation of the earth
> up..
> Can anyone confirm this?

Any time any mass shifts inwards or outwards from the Earth's center,
there will be a change in the rotational speed of the planet. Angular
momentum must be conserved. In this case, a large chunk of the Earth's
crush apparently moved downward, which forces the planet to speed up
slightly in order to conserve momentum ... the same thing that happens
when a spinning figure skater draws in his or her arms.

> Does this mean that we will not need to 'insert leap seconds' for a
> while, or does it mean that we will need to retract leap seconds that
> have been added?

The change is too small to make much difference. I recall reading that
it is about 1.6 microseconds per day, which wouldn't make a difference
for about 1700 years.