Does the rotation of the Earth cause earthquakes and volcanoes?

The simple physical principle of conservation of angular momentum thus allows us to explain disparate phenomena such as the Earth’s changing rotation rate, figure skaters spinning, spinning tops, and gyroscopic compasses. The major earthquakes in Chile (2010) and Japan (2011) increased the Earth’s spin and hence decreased the length of the day. read more

Once the plumbing system of the volcano is open and magma is flowing through it, constant earthquake waves, called harmonic tremor, are recorded (but not felt). The distribution of earthquakes provides information about magma pathways and the structure of volcanoes. read more

"I used a model of the elastic properties of the Earth along with the seismically determined source properties of the earthquake to compute the change in the distribution of the Earth's mass caused by the earthquake, and hence its effect on the Earth's rotation, including the change in the length of the day and in the Earth's wobble," Gross told Explainer in an e-mail. read more