http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35780643/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Hey, remember that earthquake that happened last week? Y'know, the one that reached 8.8 on the Richter's Scale? Well, we obviously know about its amazing power and damage. But it had some other odd effects. We found it it shortened the length of the day by a few millionths of a second, but it did something else to the city of Concepción. If you go there today, you will unfortunately be 10 feet east of where it used to be. That's right. The earthquake moved an entire city.
This massive quake shifted parts of the entire continent, including the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, about 1 inch. And think about that; it's across the entire continent. Powerful stuff.
Ben Brooks of the University of Hawaii states that "'The Maule earthquake will arguably become one of the, if not the most important great earthquake yet studied. We now have modern, precise instruments to evaluate this event, and because the site abuts a continent, we will be able to obtain dense spatial sampling of the changes it caused'" (Brooks 1).
I've heard of earthquakes collapsing buildings and public infrastructure, but never have I heard of one shifting a city. That is insane. That's as if I came home and my room was now where my sister's is. None of you have actually been to my house, but from my point of view, that's pretty weird. Ten feet is a lot, especially if it's all at once. The continents move large distances naturally, but that takes millions of years.
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