7/30/2019 Evidence Number One
1/2
Home Images Global Maps Features News & Notes Search
Home / Newsroom
News & Press
NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth
January 10, 2005
Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, o f NASAs Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md. and Dr. Richard Gross of NASAs Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. said all earthquakes
have
some affect on Earths rotation. Its just they are usually
barely
noticeable.
Any worldly event that involves t he move ment of mass affect
s
the Earths rotation, from seasonal weat her down to driving
a
car, Chao said.
Chao and Gross have been routinely calculating earthquakes
effects in changing the Earths rotation in bot h length-of-day
as
we ll as changes in Earth s gravitat ional field. They also
study
changes in polar motion that is shifting the North Pole. The
mean North pole was shifte d by about 2.5 cent imete rs (1
inch) in the direction of 145o East Latitude. This shift east
is
continuing a long-term seismic trend identified in previous
studies.
They also found the e arthquake decreased t he length of day
by 2.68 microseconds. Physically this is like a spinning
skater
drawing arms closer to the body resulting in a faster spin.
The
quake also affected the Earths shape. The y found Earths
oblateness (flatt ening on the t op and bulging at t he equato
r)
decreased by a small amount. It decreased about one part in
10 billion, continuing the trend of earthquakes making Earth
less oblate .
To make a comparison about the mass that was shifted as aresult
of t he earthquake, and how it affected the Earth, Chao
compares it t o the great Three-Gorge reservoir of China. If
filled the gorge would hold 40 cubic kilometers (10 trillion
gallons) of w ater. That shift of mass wo uld increase th e
length
of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only
very
slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top. It
would
shift t he pole position by about t wo centimeters (0.8
inch).
The researchers concluded the Sumatra earthquake caused a
length of day (LOD) change to o small to dete ct, b ut it can
be
calculated. It also caused an oblateness change barely
detectable, and a pole shift large enough to be possibly
identified. T hey hope to detec t t he LOD signal and pole
shift
when Earth rotation data from ground based and space-borne
position sensors are reviewed.
The researchers used data from the Harvard University
Centroid
Moment Ten sor database t hat catalogs large earthquakes.
The
data is calculated in a set of formulas, and the results are
reported and updated on a NASA Web site.
The massive earthquake off the west coast of Indonesia on
December 26, 2004, registered a magnitude of nine on the
new moment scale (modified Richter scale) that indicates the
size of earthquakes. It was the fourth largest earthquake in
one hundred years and largest since the 1964 Prince William
Sound, Alaska earthquake.
The devastating mega t hrust earthquake occurred as a resultof
the India and Burma plates coming toget her. It was caused
by the release of stresses that developed as the India plate
slid
beneath the overriding Burma plate. The fault dislocation,
or
earthquake, consisted of a downward sliding of one plate
relative to the overlying plate. The net effect was a
slightly
more compact Earth. The India plate began its descent into
Tsunami Strikes Sri Lanka
On December 26, 2004, tsunamis
swept across the Indian ocean,
spawned by a magnitude 9.0
earthquake off the coast of
Sumatra. Aside from Indonesia, the
island nation of Sri Lanka likely
suffered the most casualties, withthe death toll reported at
21,715
on December 29th. DigitalGlobes
Quickbird satellite captured an
image of the devastation around
Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top), on
December 26, 2004, at 10:20 a.m.
local timeabout an hour after the
first in the series of waves hit. A
Quickbird image taken on January
1, 2004 (lower), shows the normal
ocean conditions. Water is f lowing
out of the inundated area and back
into the sea, creating turbulence
offshore. Some near-shore streets
and yards are covered with muddy
water. It is possible that the image
was acquired in a trough betweenwave crests. Imagery of
nearby
beaches shows that the edge of
the ocean had receded about 150
meters f rom the shoreline. Credit:
Images Copyright DigitalGlobe
Tsunami Destroys Lhoknga,
Indonesia
The Indonesian province of Aceh
was hit hardest by the earthquake
and tsunamis of December 26,
2004. Aceh is located on the
northern tip of the island of
Sumatra. The largest waves struck
the northwestern coast of
Sumatra. The town of Lhoknga, on
the west coast of Sumatra near the
capital of Aceh, Banda Aceh, was
completely destroyed by the
tsunami, with the exception of the
mosque (white circular feature) in
the citys center. Credit: Ikonos
images copyright Cent re for
Remote Imaging, Sensing and
Processing, National University ofSingapore and Space
Imaging.
2012 2013 2014
Jan Feb Mar
Apr May Jun
Jul Aug Sep
Oct Nov Dec
Browse News by Month / Year
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/news/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20050110/01_srilanka.jpghttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Images/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/http://www.nasa.gov/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Images/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=10&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=11&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=12&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=10&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=11&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=12&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=7&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=8&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=9&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=7&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=8&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=9&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=7&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=8&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=9&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=4&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=5&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=6&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=4&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=5&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=6&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=4&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=5&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=6&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=1&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=2&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=3&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=1&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=2&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=3&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=0&y=2012http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=12&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=11&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=10&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=9&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=8&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=7&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=6&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=5&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=4&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=3&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=2&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=1&y=2013http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?m=0&y=2012http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/news/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20050110/02_lhoknga_iko.jpghttp://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/news/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20050110/01_srilanka.jpghttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/index.phphttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/index.phphttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Images/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/http://www.nasa.gov/
7/30/2019 Evidence Number One
2/2
Feeds Contact Us About the Earth Observatory Image Use Policy
Privacy Policy & Important Notices
The Earth Observatory is part of the EOS Project Science Office
located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
webmaster: Paul Przyborski | NASA off icial: Warren Wiscombe
the mantle at the Sunda t rench that lies west o f the
earthquakes epicent er.
For information and images on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/
indonesia_quake.html
For the details on the Sumatra, Indonesia Earthquake, visit
the
USGS Internet site:
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_slav_ts.html
For information about NASA and agency programs Web,
visit:http://www.nasa.gov
###
Contacts:
Gretchen Cook-Anderson/ Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington
Phone: 202/358-0836/1753
Tsunami Damage in Northern
Sumatra
This pair of images from the
Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on
NASAs Terra sa tellite shows the
Aceh province of northern
Sumatra, Indonesia, on December
17, 2004, before the quake
(bottom), and on December 29,
2004 (top), three days after the
catastrophe. On December 17, the
green vegetation along the west
coast appears to reach all the way
to the sea, with an occasional
stretch of sand (white). A fter the
earthquake and tsunamis, the
entire western coast is lined with a
purplish-brown border. The
brownish border could be deposited
sand, or perhaps exposed soil that
was stripped bare of vegetation
when the large waves rushed
ashore and then raced away.
Another possibility is that parts of
the coastline may have sunk as the
sea floor near the plate boundaryrose. In places the brown st
rip
reaches inland to a distance of
about 2 miles. Credit: NASA MODIS
Rapid Response team
This text derived from:
http://www.nasa.gov
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://www.web2pdfconvert.com/?ref=PDFhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Contact/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Contact/http://www.nasa.gov/goddard/http://eos.nasa.gov/http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.htmlhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ImageUse/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/About/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Contact/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/feeds.phphttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/index.php?src=subscribe-foothttp://twitter.com/nasa_eo/http://www.facebook.com/NASAEarthObservatoryhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/feeds.phphttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/feeds.phphttp://www.nasa.gov/http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/news/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20050110/03_terra_aceh.jpghttp://www.nasa.gov/http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_slav_ts.htmlhttp://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/indonesia_quake.html
