[LEAPSECS] Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth

[M. Warner Losh]

In message: <4B8DB16B.22590.226A9B78 at dan.tobias.name>
            "Daniel R. Tobias" <dan at tobias.name> writes:

: Just saw this article:

: 

: http://www.cbs12.com/articles/earth-4724481-chile-axis.html

: 

: What effect is this going to have on leap seconds in the near future? 

: I would expect that, since the leap seconds are required due to the 

: lengthening of the day, shortening it now would either reduce the 

: frequency of leap seconds in the near future, or even necessitate a 

: negative leap second if the effect is large enough.

: 

: What length is the day currently, following the apparent shortening 

: due to the earthquake?  Is it more or less than the duration where 

: the SI second has parity with earth-rotation rubber seconds?


As the article notes, the seasonable variability of the earth is also
on the order of a millisecond.  At most, this will slow down the next
leap second a bit, but I think on the whole we'll not see much effect
from this at all...

Warner