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Every major earthquake shifts continents to the surface Of the earth. Errors due to this in GPS readings, can lead to problems of a cosmic scale, found scientists.
The earthquake that occurred in the Sea of Okhotsk on May 24, the echoes of which were recorded in Moscow, made again pay attention to the problems of prediction and impact assessment this kind of natural disaster. Effects associated with the release of energy from tectonic plates affects not only inhabitants of seismically dangerous areas of the Earth, but also where about trembling planets usually learn from the news.
The same idea is set forth in a recently published journal. Australian Journal of Geophysical Research geophysics of Paul Tregoning from the Australian National University of Canberra.
In their study, seismologists concluded that each powerful earthquake shifts continents relative to each other by background of the process of general drift of the continents.
Since the beginning of the third millennium, 17 powerful earthquakes (magnitude more than 8). Using existing models lithospheric plate movements and readings of more than one hundred stationary GPS satellite sensors, scientists analyzed the distant effects of 15 powerful earthquakes, recorded since 2000.
The list includes such devastating earthquakes as 2001 Peru earthquake (8.5 points), 2004 in Sumatra (9.2 points) and 2011 in Japan. Every such earthquake causes horizontal movements thousands of kilometers from its hearth.
And the 2004 Sumatran earthquake made it move almost half the earth’s crust by more than 1 millimeter.
Moreover, the most stable and motionless on the planet turned out to be Australian Plate, Western Europe and Eastern Canada. IN the average size of such movements is 0.4 millimeters per year. “It is unbelievable that we were able to notice and fix it! We found a way to deal with these shifts. Scientific community it is necessary to take into account all these shifts, carefully evaluate them and come to agreement on how to take them into account, “the author of the work believes.
Such minor shifts of the continents, of course, will not a problem for owners of mobile phones, automobiles and GPS navigators
However, these millimeters must be considered by scientists involved in calculations of sea level or artificial orbits satellites.
“If the coordinates of the ground tracking stations are incorrect, do not will be able to accurately calculate the orbit, “says Paul Tregoning.
“I think he raised an important issue,” Don Argus is convinced NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Specialist the use of GPS in the calculation of satellite orbits. “Because of these seismic shifts it is difficult for us to choose a stable system reference frame. Earthquakes make life difficult for people from our country. laboratories, “he says.
According to Tregoning, the following refinement of the International System coordinates (International Terrestrial Reference System), which based on GPS data, will have to take into account the effects of powerful earthquakes. “We have to decide how to improve our reference system. Scientists involved in regional studies, can get results different from ours, so we have to give a more accurate answer, “said Tregoning.
Pavel Kotlyar
Australia Earthquake Peru
