Pirate's Cove

First off, the earthquake was upgraded

Japan’s Meteorological Agency says it has upgraded the magnitude of Friday’s catastrophic earthquake to 9.0.

The agency earlier measured it at 8.8. The quake was already the biggest to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world.

And what did that 9.0 do?

The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis.

“At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass,” said Kenneth Hudnut, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).

This is usually the point where I would mention something about the power of natural forces versus man induced globull warming, but, nah, I won’t go there today. Instead, I’ll mention this

A new analysis of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has found that the intense temblor has accelerated Earth’s spin, shortening the length of the 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds, according to geophysicist Richard Gross at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

That might not seem like a lot of time, but, think how heavy the Earth itself is.

Actually, the most amazing thing is that the loss of life from such a massive earthquake and the resulting tsunamis, along with the results of them, has been so low, compared to other huge earthquakes. Reports vary from the high 700’s  to a possible 1,800, but, really, that is remarkably low for such a dense population, and shows how prepared the Japanese were.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.