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Earth rotation question
I am writing an "end-of-the-world" type novel which the earth's rotation
will change, causing great upheaval on the earth and making the days shorter. My question is what could cause such a catastrophe? Could this be caused by: 1. a super-giant solar flare 2. a close fly-by by a gigantic mass (one gigantic mass or thousands of smaller objects) 3. major impact on the earth by a comet or asteroid (I know, this one has been done to death) Any other suggestions? All responses will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Mike |
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Well, take my word for it: It won't be Planet X and a pole shift!
Saul Levy On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 05:49:30 GMT, wrote: I am writing an "end-of-the-world" type novel which the earth's rotation will change, causing great upheaval on the earth and making the days shorter. My question is what could cause such a catastrophe? Could this be caused by: 1. a super-giant solar flare 2. a close fly-by by a gigantic mass (one gigantic mass or thousands of smaller objects) 3. major impact on the earth by a comet or asteroid (I know, this one has been done to death) Any other suggestions? All responses will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Mike |
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The South Asian tsunami did it. IIRC it caused a speeding up of the
rotation by 3 bilionths of a second. --OL |
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In article ,
Oscar Lanzi III wrote: The South Asian tsunami did it. IIRC it caused a speeding up of the rotation by 3 bilionths of a second. Three billionths of a second is too small to detect. At a department meeting at work yesterday the guy who reduces the VLBI data for earth orientation showed his latest plots, and there is currently no strong evidence that any effect is seen in the data. |
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Dear Oscar Lanzi III:
"Oscar Lanzi III" wrote in message ... The South Asian tsunami did it. IIRC it caused a speeding up of the rotation by 3 bilionths of a second. That was a computer model prediction. I believe it neglected mass displaced elswhere on the globe, only concentrating on the subducted crust. David A. Smith |
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"N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc)" N: dlzc1 D:cox wrote in message news:l6YLd.1573$Yu.1267@fed1read01... Dear George Dishman: "George Dishman" wrote in message ... "Mike Dworetsky" wrote in message ... "George Dishman" wrote in message ... Could a close pass by a magnetar have an effect on rotation? Just curious. How close is close? .... By "close" I was thinking perhaps of 100AU where the gravitational effect would cause only a longer term perturbation of the orbit. What I'm not clear on is whether the magnetic field could still give enough torque to the core to precess it appreciably in the time the star was passing at that range. For a novel, if necessary, the field could probably be stretched a few orders of magnitude, but how much? Well, keep in mind the Sun has a non-trivial magnetic field, and would likely put its "arms" around something powerful enough to tweak the Earth's angular momentum significantly... and around anything in between. Hi David, At the surface, it is trivial in comparison to a magnetar: http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/ask/a11654.html However, the dipole field falls as the cube of the distance and the diameter only a few miles (which is why the field is so high in the first place) so perhaps at a reasonable range, the field is not that great. Oh well, you can't win 'em all. George |
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