Is your GPS accurate? The world has changed

[Amulet]

Maybe a six inch shift of the earth's axis and, watch out, Japan might be as much as twelve feet closer to the USA. Oh, and by the way, the earth is spinning a bit faster.

Not the most newsworthy consequences of the quake, but still amazing.

My heart goes out to the Japanese people.

See the LA Times.

 

[elton]

Are we going to plummet into the sun? That's all we need now

 

[sarabande]

here's a link to a simulation of the tsunami, showing the reflected and refracted waves.

http://geology.com/news/category/japan.shtml

 

[nimbusgb]

Immediately following the earthquake the USGS was reporting that at least one GPS station had moved 8' Assuming that the movement was genuinely the island of Honshu moving the very concept is staggering!

One presumes that the earth 'moves from under' the satellites which remain unaffected by the shifts. There must have been a flurry of computer activity to correct things following the big bang.

 

[charles_reed]

Immediately following the earthquake the USGS was reporting that at least one GPS station had moved 8' Assuming that the movement was genuinely the island of Honshu moving the very concept is staggering!

One presumes that the earth 'moves from under' the satellites which remain unaffected by the shifts. There must have been a flurry of computer activity to correct things following the big bang.

In fact the GPS is still reasonably accurate, it's the maps that are out-of-date!!!

 

[Csail]

Mine is about 60ft out.

 

[nimbusgb]

A 10 inch displacement in the earth axis 'wobble' can't be ignored either!
Surprising we all didn't fall on our backsides!

I see that there were some preshocks the day before the 'big one' they were in the mid 7's and went completely unreported in the media for obvious reasons.

 

[Searush]

(snip)
I see that there were some preshocks the day before the 'big one' they were in the mid 7's and went completely unreported in the media for obvious reasons.

Similar shocks still continue & hopefully will for some time. Little & often is good for tectonic plate movement. Long periods of stability simply store up energy for the biggies.