So, when you attach a tiny fan to a tiny boat, and point it at the sail, the boat doesn’t move because the fan moves the boat backwards, and the sail moves the boat forwards.
(Edit: I’ve been proven wrong about the boat thing, so ignore that)
Following this logic though, how can earthquakes be able to influence our axis, and our day/night cycle length?
In: Physics
The boat has force acted on it, and will move over time. The problem with your analogy is that you forget just how big these land masses are in relation to the rest of the earth. Even then, the changes are minuscule. Hundredths of a second, up to a second at a time.
The way it does so is by redistributing mass, not by applying force. The shock of the earthquake isn’t so much the cause as it is the shift of large amounts of earth.
So if a large amount of dirt, and rock ends up lower, it works sort of like a figure skater pulling in their arms in a spin, and the Earth spins slightly faster (conservation of angular momentum)
And since the shift is only one side it also shifts the center of mass a bit which shifts the tilt of the axis.
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