Quasin wrote:
> Someone in Bible study last night said if the earthquake had lasted 
> one second longer, the earth would have been thrown out of orbit into 
> space.  Utter nonsense, but I'm trying to track down where this 
> statement came from.  I'm not finding it on google.
> 
> Anyone know?

A Mr. Roman Vilfand, General Director of Russia's Hydrometeorological 
Research Center, made a public statement that according to calculations 
the axis of the earth shifted about an inch, and the earth's rotation 
sped by about 3 microseconds/day (about a thousandth of a second every 
year).  This kind of thing is hardly unusual, on the geologic timescale. 
  Google news for stuff like "earthquake", "axis", and
you do get a 
fundamentalist alarmist article, though the author doesn't claim 
anything like the statement you heard.

I imagine this person heard a version of this blown out of proportion 
through a chain of two or three intermediate alarmists, who did not 
bother to check their sources - an unfortunately common occurence.
--
Kevin Saff
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