The earthquake that hit Chile on Saturday Feb. 27 may have shortened earth's day by 1.26 miliseconds, reports the Star Tribune. A normal day on earth is just more than 24 hours, which many people know. The reason for the change is because an earthquake can have an effect on the earth's axis in which it sits. Depending on how earth sits on its axis, it can increase or decrease how quickly earth spins each day. According to Yahoo News, earth's axis changed about a total of 3 inches
The changes that happen during earthquakes to earth's axis are permanent, but are very marginal. This is, however, not the first time that the earth's axis has changed due to an earthquake. In 2004, during a 9.1 earthquake it shortened earth's days by about 6.8 microseconds.
The earthquake in Chile has killed over 700 people while the search continues.
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