HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ-TV) -- NASA scientists say the 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile February 27 shifted the Earth off its axis by about three inches. That may be small, but it's actually enough to shorten the length of a day by a little more than one microsecond.

Some scientists theorize the movement of the Earth could cause problems with GPS devices and other communication devices, but Dr. James Leonard says that's just not the case.

"There's no effect at all," Dr. Leonard said. "It wouldn't affect it in the least. You're not going to point your GPS at Cincinnati and end up in Columbus."

Dr. Leonard admits the recent quakes in Chile and Haiti were large, but says it's highly unlikely that any huge quake could cause problems with your GPS.

"It would have to be something extraordinary for that to happen," Dr. Leonard said. "The GPS itself is only accurate to a few meters, and this change is far less than the accuracy of the GPS."

The earthquake in Chile is now in the record books. It ranks as the seventh strongest quake ever recorded.

So, with two large earthquakes in just the first few months of 2010, should we be worried about more frequent and severe earthquakes? The experts say no.

"Haiti was a magnitude 7," Geophysics professor Dr. Tim Dixon said. "Somewhere on earth is a magnitude seven roughly once a month. That's frequent enough that you can imagine that a lot of these things appear to be connected, and they're really just a coincidence."