Gross calculates the quake should have moved EarthвЂ™s figure axis (the axis about which EarthвЂ™s mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted EarthвЂ™s axis. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second), said NASA. Gross computed how EarthвЂ™s rotation should have changed as a result of the 27 February quake. вЂњIf our calculations are correct, the quake moved EarthвЂ™s figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm),вЂќ according to geophysicist Richard Gross of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,В California. The reason: The 27 February magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shortened the length of each Earth day, according to NASA, after shifting the earthвЂ™s axis slightly. To be precise: 1.26 microseconds shorter. If days feel a bit shorter these past few weeks it is because they are shorter. The 27 February 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile has shifted the EarthвЂ™s axis by three inches, causing each day to be shorter by 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second) the Earth is not a perfect sphere, with continents and oceans distributed unevenly around the planet - there is more land in the north, more water in the south NASA scientists calculate that the Chilean quake shifted enough material to change the mass balance of the entireВ planet

Has the earth shifted on its axis