Don...not my speciality, but I think the shortening that occured during the quake made the earth a little shorter near the equator, so that to conserve angular momentum, the spin sped up. Like a figure skater bringing his/her arms in. I heard that the surface waves had an amplitude of 1/5 inch (1/2 cm) at a hard rock site outside of New York. I imagine they would have been bigger on soft sediment. I wonder if it made ripples on ponds....

Off to flooded southern California...I imagine that they are having, and will have problems with mudslides and deeper seated landslides...landslides can be delayed fromt he rain...
Chris