The information presented below were all obtained fro various internet sources (all of which are listed below) and this post is a compilation and a summary, in simple words for ease of understanding of the readers, of the whole process taken into consideration for the research.) Nothing has been directly pasted from a single source.
Before getting into the technicalities of exactly how the earthquake caused the day to shorten we first need to obtain basic knowledge of how the earthquake was formed.
Japan is situated on the brinks of 4 plates: the Eurasian plate, the Philippine plate, the North American plate and the Pacific plate. Some earthquakes occur as a result of there being a movement between plates which makes Japan an earthquake prone island. This area is called the Pacific Ring of Fire and is the world's most active earthquake belt where rigid plates in the Earth's crust collide along the rim of the Pacific Ocean.
Source of Information :http://www.livescience.com/13187-japan-earthquake-tsunami-science-faq.html
The Japanese earthquake on March 11th was the result was the result of a type of converging plate boundary (subduction boundary) which is where oceanic lithosphere is pushed beneath either oceanic or continental lithosphere and in this case the denser Pacific plate was subducted under the less dense Philippine plate. It is not irregular for the Pacific Plate to move as a result of its mass and as a matter of fact it is said that it moves 3.5 inches annually. However, this move is not done gradually; at times the friction between plates causes the plate to stand at rest while building up energy so that when it finally moves the distance is greater and the force is large enough to generate an earthquake. The subduction was great enough to cause Japan to move 8 ft. eastward redistributing matter on earth and as a result it decreased the earth's radius by a minuscule amount. The following image shows what was observed of the shift of the island:
(Sources of information: http://www.livescience.com/13187-japan-earthquake-tsunami-science-faq.html
Sources of information: http://www.livescience.com/13187-japan-earthquake-tsunami-science-faq.html
http://www.civilengineergroup.com/earthquake-knowledge.html
This will further be explained as to how this change in radius caused the earth day to be shortened.
Source of Information :http://www.livescience.com/13187-japan-earthquake-tsunami-science-faq.html
(Sources of information: http://www.livescience.com/13187-japan-earthquake-tsunami-science-faq.html
Sources of information: http://www.livescience.com/13187-japan-earthquake-tsunami-science-faq.html
http://www.civilengineergroup.com/earthquake-knowledge.html
This will further be explained as to how this change in radius caused the earth day to be shortened.
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