Earthquake in Chile shifts Earth's axis

Hopefully it's common knowledge by now that there was an earthquake in Chile over the weekend. Upon learning the magnitude of an earthquake my thoughts generally drift toward concern for the people of that region. However, in addition to the 700+ people who died and many who were injured, the Earth took a toll as well, slightly shifting its axis in response to the quake. As a result, it is estimated that days on Earth have been shortened by about 1.26 microseconds. While the change is seemingly negligible, I found it interesting that it could happen at all.

Here's the link to the NASA report:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth-20100301.html