What would happen if Earth suddenly stopped spinning? Everything not nailed down would fly east at 1,000 mph. Here is the terrifying science behind a sudden stop.
Introduction
You do not feel it. At this moment the Earth is moving at an incredible speed. If you live near the equator the Earth is spinning through space at about 1,670 kilometers per hour or 1,040 miles per hour. The Earth is moving faster than the speed of sound. The Earth has been spinning this way for over four billion years. Everything on the surface of the Earth has grown accustomed to the motion of the Earth.
What would happen if the Earth suddenly stopped spinning? Not gradually over millions of years. In an instant. The answer is not just fascinating, the answer is terrifying. Everything you know about gravity and the oceans and the atmosphere, and even the shape of the Earth, would change within seconds.
This article talks about the nine consequences of a sudden stop of the Earth and none of them are survivable for people on the Earth.
Everything Flies East at Crushing Speed
The immediate and deadly effect is momentum. You, your car, your house, the ocean and even the air are all spinning with the Earth at hundreds of miles per hour. If the Earth suddenly stops everything keeps moving. Every object on the surface would keep moving at its original speed. At the equator that means everything not fixed to the ground would become a projectile traveling at 1,670 kilometers per hour.
Humans would be torn apart instantly because of the momentum. Buildings would disintegrate into flying debris. The ground beneath your feet would stop. You and your car would keep moving eastward. It would be like every car crash, plane crash and explosion, on Earth happening in a millisecond. Everything would be destroyed, including you and your house. The momentum would cause destruction.
The Oceans Become Planet-Wide Tsunamis
The oceans are not stuck to the ground. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans would keep moving super fast. The seafloor would. That would cause huge walls of water to sweep across continents. These walls of water would not be tsunamis. They would be floods that would move faster than any wave we have ever seen.
Every coastal city, from New York, to Tokyo would be gone in a few minutes. Even mountains would not be safe because the water would move so fast that it would wash away everything leaving just bare rock. The oceans would not just move around in their basins.
They would be lifted out of their basins. Thrown across the planet mixing in ways that have never happened before on Earth. The oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans would cause destruction. The oceans would move fast. Change everything.
The Atmosphere Rips into Supersonic Winds
The air is spinning with the Earth. When the Earth stops moving the air around the Earth keeps going. This would cause strong winds at the equator. These winds would be much stronger than any storm or tornado we have ever seen. They would be so strong that they would take away the dirt from the top of the ground, knock down trees and wear away mountains. Anything that was not already broken by things flying through the air would be blown away into pieces.
The air moving fast would also make a lot of heat and this could start big fires all over the place. The air would be like a tool that cleans the surface of the Earth, taking away everything that was once there. The Earth and the air around it would be very dangerous if the Earth were to stop moving. The air would just keep going. Cause all sorts of problems.
The Planet Rounds Up
The Earth is not a ball. It is a bit squashed it is bigger around the middle and smaller at the top and bottom. This is because of the way the Earth spins around. When the Earth spins it makes everything move outward at the middle, which is why the Earth is 43 kilometers wider around the middle than it is from the top, to the bottom. If the Earth were to stop spinning the middle would not be bigger anymore. The middle would sink down. The top and bottom would come up. This would cause big earthquakes and volcanoes would erupt in a way that we cannot even imagine. The Earth’s surface would. Change shape as the Earth changes. Many fault lines that go on for thousands of miles would break at the same time. The Earth would be very different if it did not spin around as it does. The spin of the Earth is what makes it the shape it is the Earths shape is because of its spin.
Gravity Feels Heavier at the Equator
The Earth is spinning around now and that helps a little bit against the force of gravity. This is especially true at the equator. You will weigh a bit less at the equator than you do at the poles because the Earth spinning around makes a force that pushes you away from the Earth. If the Earth were to stop spinning all of a sudden that force that pushes you away would be gone. So you would weigh a little more at the equator.
The Earth spinning around makes a difference for some things, like satellites and spacecraft. Satellites would notice the difference away if the Earth stopped spinning. And spacecraft that launch from the Earth at the equator would not get the speed they get from the Earth spinning around.
The effect of the Earth not spinning would be small, about 0.3 percent so you would not feel like you are being crushed or anything.. Over a long time the oceans and the air around the Earth would move around and that would change the force of gravity in complicated ways. The Earth spinning around is what gives spacecraft a free speed boost when they launch from the equator.
Days and Nights Become Six Months Long
Without spin a day on Earth would be really long. A year. One side of Earth would face the Sun for six months. Get lots of sunlight. The other side would face away from the Sun for six months. Be very dark.
The side that faces the Sun would get extremely hot so hot that water would boil and the ground would turn into a desert.
On the other hand the dark side would be extremely cold, even colder than Antarctica.
The air on the side would freeze and fall as snow. There might be an area near the line, between light and dark where life could exist. Even in that small area the sun would always be rising or setting so there wouldn’t be a normal day and night. The lack of a day-night cycle would make it hard for life to adapt.
Could It Ever Happen?
The Earth is not going to stop spinning all of a sudden. This is because the Earth stopping suddenly is just not possible. There is no force that can make the Earth stop spinning away. The Moon is actually slowing down the Earth’s spin. This is happening very slowly. It takes a long time like billions of years, for the Earth’s rotation to slow down. The Moon’s force adds about 1.8 milliseconds, to each century which is a very small change.
The Earth will never stop spinning on its own for trillions of years.. The Sun will probably swallow the Earth before that even happens. So you do not have to worry about the Earth stopping. This is something that people imagine is not real. The Earth will keep spinning as long as it is around and you will never have to deal with the problem of it stopping all of a sudden. You can sleep well at night knowing that the Earth will keep spinning.
Conclusion
If the Earth were to stop spinning all of a sudden the Earth would be a different place. Everything that is not attached to the ground would start moving fast to the east. This means that everything would be flying through the air at a high speed. The oceans would cause waves all around the world. The air would start moving so fast that it would be like a big storm that would remove all the soil from the continents.
The Earth would start to change shape. This would cause earthquakes and volcanoes to erupt. A day would be as long as six months so one side of the Earth would be very cold and the other side would be very hot. The magnetic field of the Earth would also stop working. This would mean that we would be exposed to bad radiation from space.
Nothing that is complicated would be able to survive on the Earth.. We do not have to worry about this happening because it is not possible for the Earth to stop spinning all of a sudden. The Earth is protected by the laws of physics so the Earth will keep spinning.
Thinking about what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning helps us to see how important it is that the Earth spins around every day. The Earth spinning around is what makes life on our planet possible. We should be grateful for this. The Earth spinning is what keeps us safe. It is something that we should appreciate every single day.