http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2011/08/25/reader-questions-smoke-from-a-distant-fire/?src=earthmatters-rss Earth is an amazing planet, and the one that matters most to us. Let’s have a conversation about it. Wed, 01 May 2013 01:19:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2011/08/25/reader-questions-smoke-from-a-distant-fire/#comment-10677 Mike Carlowicz Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:07:48 +0000 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/?p=295#comment-10677 Chris: A scientist colleague from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter gave this answer:
“Because the lunar motion is determined by the mass distribution of the Earth, the Japanese earthquake could have altered the lunar motion, but to an amount that would be extremely small and inconsequential.”

]]> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2011/08/25/reader-questions-smoke-from-a-distant-fire/#comment-10661 Chris Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:59:30 +0000 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/?p=295#comment-10661 If the earthquake in Japan shifted the Earth off it’s axis slightly causing the earth to rotate faster, does it also affect the cycle, rotation, and orbit of the moon?

]]> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2011/08/25/reader-questions-smoke-from-a-distant-fire/#comment-6889 alden moffatt Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:49:58 +0000 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/?p=295#comment-6889 I once saw a global pollution map which, surprisingly to me at the time, showed shipping lanes. The corridors down which ships travel are as polluted as anything on land. That’s because ships burn the very lowest grade of fuel, which resembles asphalt tar. The fuel needs to be heated before it becomes liquid. And it’s burned without pollution controls, on the high seas where there is no government. Air currents bring this pollution to land eventually, and even Colorado gets a share of this global haze that travels again and again around our finite planet.

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