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Just couple of days after the destructive earthquake and tsunami in Japan there was a news report from NASA which got well media coverage as it could bring the curiosity of the masses. NASA shared their after quake scientific calculation which is worthless in nature and socially irresponsible as still hundreds were struggling to survive in debris and destroyed houses. It was reported that the quake resulted in shortening of Earth day and also shift of its axis. Report also mentioned “but don’t worry—you won’t notice the difference”, if not to be worried then why to dilute people’s mind with useless information.

It stated that result was achieved through applying a complex model to perform a preliminary theoretical calculation of how the Japan quake affected Earth’s rotation. And estimations suggested that it resulted in shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second) and should have shifted the position of Earth’s figure axis (the axis about which Earth’s mass is balanced) by about 17 centimeters (6.5 inches), towards 133 degrees east longitude. If to analyze the numbers it is really not to be worried, the 1.8 microseconds which is one millionth of a second is really small number and valueless even to be mentioned.

Earth in its thousands of years has witnessed and withstood such catastrophic natural disaster which resulted in elimination of nations and civilizations, cities remained under water, and even ending the period of Dinosaurs; which brought real changes in Earth’s environment. Report also mentions “Earth’s rotation changes all the time as a result of not only earthquakes, but also the much larger effects of changes in atmospheric winds and oceanic currents” which is very much obvious and makes this report to be misleading as well, as people generally judge only through heading of the news without much analyses.

The question comes, when the laboratories are able to measure the microsecond changes in Earth behavior why similar technologies are not bringing ample calculation to save lives of people? As meteorology is able to predict the rain through direction of clouds, it is clear that even the quake signals its occurrence. Unfortunately seismology had failed once more in predicting this ruinous quake that ended not only livelihood of people as well nuclear crisis. And even the tsunami walls in coastal areas were not adequate to prevent the cause.   But the quake engineering that is applied in building of structures and houses well stood against this magnitude require applause to Japanese civil engineering.

Link to after quake NASA’s report: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/japanquake/earth20110314.html

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