what would happen if the earth stopped spinning
It could be possible that one day billions of years from now the earth will standstill
But chances are good that other events will occur before that such as the Sun swallowing up the planet
With that being said there isn't a chance that the earth will suddenly stop spinning anytime soon
but let's just assume for a moment that the earth did suddenly stop rotating and
Take a look at what would happen to us and the planet
Our planet spins at its equator
1,000 miles per hour as it orbits the Sun, but as you get closer to the poles the rotation is slower
Without this rotation life as we know it wouldn't be possible
It is said that billions of years ago our planet used to spin much faster than it does now
In the beginning of our young solar system an unknown planet or large celestial body collided with the earth and in that collision the Earth's
Alignment and rotation were changed and the moon was formed
Since then the Earth's rotation has been slowing down
It is said that the moon used to also spin faster than it does now before it became tidally locked with the earth
tidal locking is the name given to the situation when a moon or planetary objects orbital period matches its rotational period
Coincidentally it is the same fate that affects every single large moon orbiting a planet a great example of this is our own moon
In our early solar system both the earth and the moon rotated independently of each other
But the Earth's gravity grabbed on to the tidal bulges and slowed down the rotation of the moon
to compensate for the loss of momentum in the system the moon drifted away from the earth to its current position about
230,000 miles away
But moon has the same impact on the earth and those same tidal forces that caused the tides on earth are
Slowing down the Earth's rotation bit by bit and the moon is continuing to drift away a few centimeters a year to compensate
There are two different scenarios if the earth just stopped spinning
But wasn't tidal locked to the Sun the planet would experience six months of sunlight and six months of darkness
But for the purpose of this mind experiment, let's take a look at the effects
It would have on our planet to be tidally locked to our star the Sun
First of all we have to consider the speed of which our planet rotates at the equator
which is roughly 1,000 miles per hour a
Sudden pause would cause everything on the surface of the earth to suddenly move at a speed of over 1,000 miles per hour
1,600 kilometres per hour in a sideways direction
Since the velocity needed to escape the Earth's gravity is over 24,000 800 miles per hour everything would stay tacked to the Earth's surface
Yet jolted forward
Imagine everything suddenly moving across the planet at 1,000 miles per hour. It wouldn't matter what it was
Everything would experience a sideways deceleration of three-quarters of the Earth's gravity suddenly down would be at an angle of 38 degrees from vertical
the force of suddenly stopping would rip buildings right off their foundations and
Send them flying across the ground with anything else that isn't solid bedrock
destroying everything in a giant and deadly debris path
But that's not all this would also include the oceans which would suddenly slosh sideways across the planet
With waves being miles and miles high moving at the same velocity
Imagine tsunamis so high you couldn't see the top
Just a wall of water racing towards you at 1,000 miles per hour
Both of these two calamities would be the end of most life as we know it
Although the earth would stop spinning the atmosphere would continue to spin at the Earth's same velocity as well
Which would create very high winds and very nasty storms
Because the Earth rotates centrifugal force forces the planet to bulge along the equator
with no rotation
you have no bulge and
without that bulge all of the extra water held in place along the equator would go rushing back toward the poles if
The earth stops spinning you have to take into consideration that the inner core of the earth is spinning at a faster rate
Just because the surface has slowed down doesn't mean the core of the earth has stopped to
Our highly volcanic planet might erupt in ways we never imagined as the tectonic forces above and below enter into a new conflict
Supervolcanoes would likely erupt across the entire planet
Our tidally locked earth would have half of the planet always facing the Sun and the other half would be in permanent darkness
Currently our planet is in what is called a Goldilocks zone or?
Habitable zone where it is the perfect distance from our Sun in order to support life
There might still be places on earth where the climate would be habitable
but on the two extreme sides it might prove difficult for life to survive assuming that anything survived the previous catastrophes if
There were any appreciable amount of life left on the surface of the planet
It would now have to survive in the Twilight strip of land between the two halves
We are far enough away from our star that the part of the earth
That would be facing the Sun wouldn't start to burn or turn to ashes overnight
however the atmosphere on the hot side of the planet would start to erode the
portion of the earth always in the direct sunlight would receive more direct sunlight
Resulting in more heat and these high temperatures would cause strong rain and an increase of weathering
normal weathering regulates the climate on the earth
But now that you have one side of the planet hotter and another side cooler and on the hot side
Atmospheric gases would build up and create even more heat. This is called the runaway greenhouse effect
Clouds of gas could significantly increase the temperature so that the oceans would boil much like what has happened to Venus
The middle of the planet facing the Sun on its equator or the sub stellar point would end up so hot
That almost nothing could survive
The cold side of the planet on the other hand would have a different situation
The loss of the sun's heat on the dark side of the earth would turn the atmosphere into a dense gas
Then condense into a liquid, and then further condense into solid ice of
Course it is doubtful that the atmosphere on the dark side of the planet would turn into a solid form
Instead it would keep condensing and creating a vacuum
Which would pull air from the hot side of the planet where the gases in the atmosphere would be expanding?
With this happening it might be possible that the atmosphere would make the planet livable
But the storms that would come from this exchange of hot and cold air would be unimaginable
There would be super storms on both sides of the planet
With wind being strong enough to strip the very rock and he wrote it into sand
The next thing that would likely happen is that the magnetic field of the earth would stop regenerating and slowly decay over time
The reason for this is because the magnetic field of the earth is
generated by a dynamo effect that involves its rotation
Our magnetic field plays a huge role in keeping our atmosphere intact and this magnetic field also protects the earth from cosmic rays
Where would this leave humanity?
we are a very adaptable species that has seemed to survive other catastrophes and
Even though we have powerful
Technology being able to survive on a planet that has stopped spinning and is tidally locked to the Sun would be a great challenge
We would be able to control our environment to a degree by moving underground
But growing food in such conditions may be difficult. However. You shouldn't worry about this happening anytime soon as physicists
Have predicted it would be a billion years from now at the current rate
Let us know what you would do and how you would face these new challenges in the comments below
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