Leap second to be added to 2005

News@Nature.com reports that, "Officials have announced that an extra second will be added to 2005, to accommodate a slowing down of the Earth's rotation. The announcement is by no means unprecedented. We have been adding leap seconds to years since the 1970s, but, owing to unpredictable quirks in our planet's rotation, we haven't needed one since 1998. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in Paris will sneak the extra time in on 31 December 2005, making the countdown to the new year one second longer than some might expect." The extra second was needed as a result of the large earthquake that caused the tsunami in Indonesia. The quake forced a dense mass of the earth's crust downward. Like a spinning figure skater that brings her arms in, the earth began to spin faster as the mass shifted shortening our day by 3 millions of a second.