Earthquake Shifts Earth's Axis, Speeds Up Rotation

According to NASA scientists, the Earth's axis likely moved by about 3 inches following the major earthquake in Chile on February 27th. Earthquakes can shift the distribution of mass on the planet, changing the way it rotates.

The change is very small -- the length of a day shortened by just a millionth of a second. The quake may have caused some more obvious changes, too, perhaps shifting islands and raising Santa Maria Island (off the coast of Chile) by approximately 6 feet, according to a researcher at Liverpool University.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-01/chilean-quake-likely-shifted-earth-s-axis-nasa-scientist-says.html