- #1
JohnFornaro
- 6
- 0
Since the redistribution of mass in the Earth's surface can be caused by earthquakes, sometimes the Earth's rotation is increased or decreased by a small amount.
Recent series of quakes seem to be related. To me, this makes sense, since if plate "A" should move, then plate "B" would also move. Somehow a portion of that stress would be felt by all the plates, but wouldn't necessarily result in distant quakes, since the transmitted forces would certainly dimish over distance. So I have three questions about this:
(1) If an individual quake is big enough, could it cause some sort of chain reaction thru a large number of other tectonic plates resulting in, say, a week of global, huge quakes?
After some time, a new tectonic homeostasis would be reached, but it would be a rough week for everyone on Earth. So that's one question.
(2) Then I ask, if this global shaking and quaking were to happen, could the tectonic balance around the Earth's axis be changed so much that the inclination might also change?
Say, perhaps from 23.5 degrees to 24 degrees?
(3) And my third question would be regarding the Earth's core. Is it thought to be totally liquid, or does it have rotating solid chunks in it? What would be the relationship between tectonic activity on the surface, and the rotational stability of the core? How might this affect the Earth's rotation andaxis?
Side note:
Stumbled across a related thread on this forum while taking a googol on earthquakes and the Earth's question. I thought it would ok to bump that old thread back to life. Apparently it's not ok to bump the old thread, so started this new one.
Recent series of quakes seem to be related. To me, this makes sense, since if plate "A" should move, then plate "B" would also move. Somehow a portion of that stress would be felt by all the plates, but wouldn't necessarily result in distant quakes, since the transmitted forces would certainly dimish over distance. So I have three questions about this:
(1) If an individual quake is big enough, could it cause some sort of chain reaction thru a large number of other tectonic plates resulting in, say, a week of global, huge quakes?
After some time, a new tectonic homeostasis would be reached, but it would be a rough week for everyone on Earth. So that's one question.
(2) Then I ask, if this global shaking and quaking were to happen, could the tectonic balance around the Earth's axis be changed so much that the inclination might also change?
Say, perhaps from 23.5 degrees to 24 degrees?
(3) And my third question would be regarding the Earth's core. Is it thought to be totally liquid, or does it have rotating solid chunks in it? What would be the relationship between tectonic activity on the surface, and the rotational stability of the core? How might this affect the Earth's rotation andaxis?
Side note:
Stumbled across a related thread on this forum while taking a googol on earthquakes and the Earth's question. I thought it would ok to bump that old thread back to life. Apparently it's not ok to bump the old thread, so started this new one.