What happens if the Earth suddenly stops

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Before staging an apocalypse, you need to think carefully about the details.

Our Earth rotates on its axis at a speed of about 1,674 km / h. Let's imagine what would happen if it was stopped abruptly. What for? Well, it’s interesting. True, the consequences will be so catastrophic that the long-suffering planet is unlikely to be able to survive them all.

1. The planet will be torn apart

James Zimbelman, senior geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, reports that if it stops instantly, the Earth will simply be torn to pieces. The speed will disappear, but the kinetic moment will not go anywhere.

This can be compared to a sharp braking of a bus: he himself stopped, but the passengers in the cabin continued to move and everyone got hit.

The Earth's crust and the upper part of the mantle will turn into a cloud of asteroids and pieces of molten rock, which will continue their journey around the Sun. Naturally, nothing alive will survive in this case. Gradually, under the influence of gravity, the debris will come back together and form a new planet - this is called accretion.

Fortunately, the scientist says, this is just a thought experiment, because there is no force in nature that could stop the rotation of the Earth.

2. Everything from the surface will take off

Suppose Zimbelmann is exaggerating and the earth's crust is very, very solid. In reality, of course, this is not so, but suddenly we do not know something. So, the planet did not rupture, but what happens next?

According to Stan Odenwald, a physicist from NASA, if you instantly stop a planet spinning at a speed of 1,674 km / h, the remaining torque will rip off its surface literally everything that is not nailed. What is nailed will also tear if the nails do not reach the bedrock. Stones, soil, trees, buildings, your dog - everything will blow into the atmosphere.

But the moment of force is unlikely to be enough to throw all objects from Earth into space, and they will fall back onto the planet.

The consequences of such a rise and fall can be imagined. Naturally, all living things will be killed by overloads or collisions with other objects. If some sly ones hide, for example, in a very deep underground bunker, they will be smeared against the walls.

3. Hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes will begin

The experiment can be continued 1.

2.

3., if you imagine that the soil on the planet really does not want to break away from rocks and clings tightly to them. In addition, all our buildings on Earth are very solid, all things are tied with tape, and people and other living creatures (including your dog) clung to the handrails and put on helmets. What then?

With the stop of the Earth, a monstrous hurricane will fall on us. The fact is that the planet's atmosphere revolves around it at the same speed of 1,674 km / h.

For comparison 1.

2.: "Isabel", the most powerful and deadliest cyclone in history, observed in 2003, had a wind of 270 km / h. The mighty Great Red Spot vortex on Jupiter boasts a speed of 432 km / h.

And abrasive particles during sandblasting are thrown out at a speed of 650 km / h.

After the Earth stops, the flow of wind will blow away all objects, no matter how firmly they are held, will cut them with debris, and people will be scattered like toys. Cities will simply be "shaved" from the surface in a way that no blast wave from an atomic bomb can do.

And after the hurricane, a powerful tsunami will come, which will wash away what the wind has not blown away. After all, not only the atmosphere, but also the oceans will retain their angular velocity relative to the surface.

In addition, different deep layers of the Earth - crust, mantle and core - due to the conservation of momentum when stopped, will create very strong friction with each other. This will lead to monstrous earthquakes. As if the previous disasters were few.

And finally, when the hurricane stops, it turns out that it has raised incredible clouds of dust from the surface. And until it settles back, winter will reign on Earth for several years, because particles in the air will not let sunlight through.

4. The magnetic field will disappear

The next problem that awaits the inhabitants of the planet is deadly radiation.

The point is that the Earth has a magnetic 1.

2. a field that protects all living things from the radiation of the Sun and cosmic rays. It is created by the dynamo effect of its core. Roughly speaking, the metal core spins in the molten rock, thus generating powerful electricity, and the planet turns into a huge magnet.

If the core stops, the Van Allen radiation belts (this is the upper region of the Earth's magnetosphere) will disappear. And there will be nothing to stop the high-energy particles with which the unfriendly Universe is bombarding us.

This means that the survivors (it is doubtful that there will be such, but let's hope for the best) after previous misfortunes will receive the strongest radiation exposure and within a few days (if lucky, months) they will die from radiation sickness.

Unfortunately, radiation doesn't work the way it does in the Marvel comics, so no one turns into super-living superheroes.

Over time, the solar wind will blow away the atmosphere, as happened once on Mars. Well, survivors who have adapted to the radiation will have to learn for a long time, in the sense of forever, to hold their breath.

5. The relief will change

Our planet has a somewhat flattened shape due to its rotation. The equator "bulges" relative to the poles by about 21.4 kilometers. This makes the relief look like we are used to.

If the Earth stops, its appearance will change over time, says Australian physicist and popularizer of science Karl Krushelnitsky. The oceans will gradually move to the poles, and one huge continent will form at the equator, encircling our long-suffering globe.

Naturally, after that it will be possible to say goodbye to normal weather. The rains at the equator will stop, and the central part of the continent will turn into one large desert. However, it already became such when we lost the atmosphere, so it's okay.

6. The day will last a year

After all that has happened, the change in the time of day is sheer nonsense, but still. Now one side of the planet will always be facing the Sun, and the other from it.

Roughly the same thing happens on Mercury - solar tidal forces slowed it down so that a year and a day there lasts the same, about 176 Earth days. Because of this, one half of Mercury is hot, and the other is cosmic cold.

The same thing awaits the Earth. So over time, it will first freeze, and then its oceans will evaporate. And the planet will turn into an empty and boring stone ball, like the same Mercury.