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　The massive earthquake that struck northeast Japan Friday (March 11) has shortened the length of Earth's day by a fraction and shifted how the planet's mass is distributed.
　　上周五（3月11日）袭击日本东北部的巨大地震使地球每日时长略有缩短，还改变了全球的质量分布。

　　A new analysis of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has found that the intense temblor has accelerated Earth's spin, shortening the length of the 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds, according to geophysicist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
　　据美国宇航局喷气推进实验室的地球物理学家理查德•格罗斯说，对日本发生的这次8.9级大地震的新研究发现，剧烈的地震使地球自转速度加快，使原本24小时的一天缩短了1.8微秒。该实验室位于加州的帕萨迪纳市。

　　Gross refined his estimates of the Japan quake's impact – which previously suggested a 1.6-microsecond shortening of the day – based on new data on how much the fault that triggered the earthquake slipped to redistribute the planet's mass. A microsecond is a millionth of a second.
　　根据引发地震的断层所发生的位移的新数据，格罗斯修正了他先前对日本地震影响的估计，他原先认为地球日长缩短了1.6微秒。1微秒就是一百万分之一秒。断层位移将使地球质量分布发生变化。

　　"By changing the distribution of the Earth's mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused the Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds," Gross told SPACE.com in an e-mail. More refinements are possible as new information on the earthquake comes to light, he added.