If The Earth Stops Spinning, Do We Stand A Chance Of Survival?

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever been in a fast moving vehicle on a very smooth road before? You will agree with me that the vehicle will not appear to be moving but the trees, landmarks et al will be the things that will appear to be moving. However, if the vehicle suddenly halts on the spot, what do you think will happen to the passengers of the vehicle if they are not strapped with their seatbelts? Obviously, they will fly through and shatter the windscreen with the same speed at which the vehicle halted from. Oops! That will be catastrophic! Now, we will leverage on this little scenario to make inferences on the fate of the earth if the earth decides to take a vacay.

The earth spins at an insane speed of over 1000miles/hr _[ref] (at the equator though), this figure is slightly lower as it moves to the south/north poles but gets back to the initial 1000miles/hr (on the average). However, this was not the original speed of the earth. As the years pass by, the earth becomes slower by a very tiny fraction which will definitely make a huge difference in the far future. For the purpose of this survey, we will subcategorize the fate of the earth if the earth stops spinning into four scenes (starting with the least brutal).

SCENE 1

Looking at it from the very fair side before we start diving deep into the horror part. Remember what I told you in the last post that the moon is tidally locked with the earth. This means that the rotational speed of one is in sympathy to the other. This also means that the halting of the earth will lead to the halting of the moon. The effect of this will be: A particular side of the earth will constantly face the sun without rotating while the other part will be in gross darkness. For the side that faces away from the sun, the temperature will so much drop that bones will chill, and bodies of water will freeze - just like it is currently experienced in Greenland (which is arguably the coldest place on the earth).

_{Image from Pixabay. CC0 Licensed}

For the side of the earth facing the sun, there will be a very high spike in temperature and the overall retention of heat in that part. The area will be so baked by the heat of the sun that the ground will begin to flake and the bodies of water will boil and evaporate (as if someone set it on fire). The only place that might remain habitable or support life will be the edge between the dark side and the sun-baked side of the earth. However, it wouldn't really matter if that particular side will support human life because what will happen in scene 2 will be a bigger horror.

SCENE 2

If the earth halts from the insane speed of 1000miles/hr, the occupants of the earth and everything on the surface (houses, structures, seas, oceans etc) will swing into an immediate motion of almost the initial speed of the earth - just like the scenario of the moving vehicle I cited earlier. Within seconds, the whole earth will be ripped apart and what used to be “structures" will turn to debris and collide with others. This is not exempting humans and animals that will also be among the "debris" that will be sent flying off.

In an event where the earth stops only the rotational movement, a day on earth will be as long as a normal year on earth (that is 365.25 days). This also means that the rising and setting of the sun will be in reverse - imagine the sun rising in the west and setting in the east. More scary is the fact that it will all happen in one year (which is also the length of one day on earth). Looks scary right? Hold on for scene 3 where more scares lie.

SCENE 3

As the earth is spinning, both the solid part of the earth (lithosphere) and the atmosphere are in motion. In a case where the earth stops rotating but the atmosphere never stops (which is highly unlikely for it to stop with the solid part of the earth), this will create incessant blasts of strong and destructive winds (just like series of nuclear blasts) which will create catastrophic tsunamis - such that has never been experienced in the history of the earth.

Let's look at it this way: If you have ever observed closely the map of the earth from the footage of a satellite imagery taken from the space, you will discover that it is slightly bulged out around the equator. The cause of this is very simple: while the earth spins, a centrifugal force is created by the action of the earth's atmosphere _[ref] - this centrifugal force is responsible for the bulge you observe. That means, if there is no spinning, the centrifugal force wouldn't be there and the equator will become flattened with the passage of time.

When this happens, the gravitational pull of the earth will become more concentrated on the poles, and of course, this will pull part of the oceans to the north and south poles respectively. It will be a case of; a large continent being in the middle and divides two large bodies of water. This will greatly affect the earth's magnetosphere (which is the area of the earth that affects charged particles). Of course, the motion of the earth that creates the magnetic field (just like in dynamo) will become absent and the earth's magnetic field will begin to dwindle. Some of us may not know, but the earth's magnetosphere shields us from nasty cosmic rays. When all these are gone, the earth will be bombarded by dangerous cosmic rays which will definitely limit the chances of humans survival to almost zero. Okay let's look at last scene; probably that's where a major scare lies.

SCENE 4

Do you remember what we studied about plate tectonic in our previous post? That's the movement of the inside of the earth (the crust, mantle and core). We also considered "volcanoes" as being part of the resultant effects of tectonics. If the earth stops spinning, this will create a gross instability within the internal core of the earth, and remember what I told you that the internal core of the earth has an almost equal temperature (or more) with the surface of the sun. Maybe this statement will refresh your mind a bit.

> ...All the plates that make up the lithosphere have different patterns of movement. This movement can be convergent, divergent or even sliding, and their interactions go a long way to influence the earth's geography... Volcanoes can be remotely linked to plate tectonics. Yes! It might surprise you to know that the internal core of the earth is almost as hot as the surface of the sun - in case you're wondering where volcanoes come from. Culled from my last post.

_{Image from Pixabay. CC0 Licensed}

Going with this fact about plate tectonics, a sudden pause in the motion of the earth will disrupt the movement of the plates greatly, thus creating an instability in the individual plates that make up the land mass. This will create massive vents of super-active and destructive volcanoes, such that has never been witnessed in the history of the earth. The effect is better left as an imagination because the entire earth will be boiling from extreme heat, just like the planet Venus. Here's a little tip for you: Venus is discovered to be the planet with the most active volcanoes and it is also the hottest, even though it is not the closest to the sun (Yes! it is hotter than mercury), this is because of the presence of a much denser atmosphere made up of CO<sub>2</sub> that traps and retains more heat _[ref].

With all these possible catastrophes, what do you think will be the fate of the human population if the earth halts? But the comfy here is; we do not expect this to happen anytime soon. On a lighter note; it is in our best interest that the earth keeps working hard... Obviously, it is a case of "all work and no rest".

FINAL WORDS

Humans have been known to be extremely adaptable specie, but with our adaptability and whatnot, do we stand a chance of survival if the earth halts for a moment? Considering all the horror sides of this, the chance of human survival might be almost zero, and so with other species. Wait! Did someone suggest an Extra Terrestrial colony if the earth stops? Trust me; there wouldn't even be time to leave the earth if it stops spinning. We only hope it doesn't stop.

Thanks for reading

> References for further reading:

• Rotational speed of the earth
• Action of Plate Tectonics - Nationalgeographic
• Earth's rotational Characteristics
• Earth's magnetosphere and its shielding effect - NASA
• Equatorial bulge - resultant effect of earth's rotational and centriugal force

gif by @foundation