I don't know about moving it off its axis, but it did knock a fraction of a second off our rotation. That doesn't sound much like a big deal to some people, but I think that's crazy. It took alot of shaking to make that happen.
I don't think the actual amount of the shift has been calculated, but it is true that wobble of the axis of rotation was shifted. The axis of rotation itself is wobbly, and the trajectory of this wobble was altered. I heard the thing about changing the time of rotation on tv, but then i read that wasn't true. So i don't know about that one.
Essentially from what I understand - the one plate went under the other by about 98 feet - affectively reducing the size of the earth - that combined with the force in which it happened sped things up one second.
it was an earthquake of subduction, so technically the surface area of the earth is smaller but the continental crust simply subducted under the athenosphere and will be recyled, so it's the same theory as saying that volcanic explosions make the earht larger-it's not true, the mass is still the same.
who was it that said matter is neither created nor destroyed - is that the principal your going on lynsey?
heh they teach you a lot about earthquakes here. Wilson and he speaks of both souls and matter as seperate but alike in that neither are destroyed rather recycled.
Newton knew that the particles would go to the center of the earth instead of elipse, but he didn't know that the particles were recycled
