we ve bull pen trying to answer a lot of the questions, the very simple questions people have after an 8.8 magnitude quake and they re being compared to a fault line near the pacific coast in the united states. is that a fair comparison? well, my specialty is the earth s rotation. i m not really an earthquake expert. well, then, we ll just move on. let s then talk about the other story regarding the earthquake being so significant that the earth s axis shifted. what about that report? tell us about that one. that s the kind of work i do. i look at how the earth s rotation changes, how it wobbles and speeds up and slows down as it rotates. so after the chilean earthquake, i computed what effect it should have had on the earth s rotation and found that it should have made the length of the day shorter by about a microsecond, about a millionth of a second
wave coming. all right. president bachelet says that looting has been contained although a curfew in concepcion has been extended to midday. earthquakes like this have not only an impact on the people, but the globe, itself. a jet propulsion scientist at nasa says that the earthquake as chad told us was an 8.8, actually shook earth off its axis a little bit. and the effect of that is that it has shortened the day by a 1.26 microsecond. now a microsecond is what is that? one millionth of a second. so the day is one millionth of a second. look at the earth when it is rotating on the axis last week. this is how the earth looks when it is rotating on the axis. what does it look like now? well, bill nye the science guy has some answers. he is joining us live from london. bill, welcome to the show.