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https://nypost.com/2017/11/21/earths-slowing-rotation-could-cause-huge-earthquakes-in-2018/
High-budget Hollywood disaster flicks love to make up weird natural phenomena to vaguely explain why a bunch of crazy catastrophes are about to threaten the very existence of mankind, but they're almost always complete bunk. Now, a new study featuring actual science suggests that 2018 could see a spike in huge earthquakes around the globe and it's thanks to the Earth's rotation slowing down.
The research, which was presented in a paper by scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Montana at Missoula, focuses on historic earthquake trends and seems to draw a pretty strong link between periods of slower Earth rotation and rashes of major quakes.
It sure sounds like a sci-fi plot point, but the science is based purely in reality. The study's authors plotted earthquake activity going back over 100 years and thanks to the wealth of data available they were able to determine that the temporary slowing of Earth's rotation seems to be linked to the most devastating and frequent earthquake outbreaks.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday December 27 2017, @06:22PM (4 children)
It's time to outlaw fidget spinners.
How does a planet temporarily slow it's spin?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2017, @10:47PM
Or ship them to Australia where they speed up the Earth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2017, @10:57PM
My understanding is the lunar tidal forces pull on the outer portions of Earth, gradually slowing it down. It also causes the spin rate of the inner and outer layers to temporarily get out of sync, causing quakes due to the friction. Eventually they sync up, averaging out their difference. Thus, if you measure Earth's rotation based on the surface, it may seem to slow and then speed back up some.
If you ever put smaller balls inside a big ball and spin it around, you'll observe some hurkey-jerky motion as it takes a while for the momentum to spread evenly. (See, I wasn't just goofing around then; I was learning about astrophysics.)
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Wednesday December 27 2017, @11:16PM
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Deviation_of_day_length_from_SI_day.svg
So day-to-day it's occasionally possible, but in the long term friction always wins.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Thursday December 28 2017, @03:28AM
You know that place in Utah where they bolt down solid motors for testing? Yeah, they need to point them in the opposite direction to speed us back up..
Questioning science is how you do science!