The Earth’s Rotation: What Would Happen if it Stopped? An In-depth Look at the Impact

KOMPAS.com – The earth continues to spin like a top, even though we cannot see, hear or feel it.

The Earth makes one complete rotation on its axis every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09053 seconds.

Read also: What Would Happen to Earth Without an Atmosphere?

This means that land at the equator is moving at a speed of about 1,770 km/h, with the rotation speed decreasing to zero at the poles.

So, what would happen if the Earth stopped rotating?

Impact The Earth stops rotating

Quoting Sky at Night Magazine, you and everything around you move at a constant speed and are held firmly in place by gravity, so that the Earth’s movement is not felt.

However, if the Earth immediately stopped rotating, then we would suddenly become aware of the previous rotation because we would all be thrown eastward.

On the other hand, if the Earth stopped rotating gradually, the impact would also occur gradually.

We will see days and nights getting longer, our circadian rhythms being disrupted, and weather patterns influenced by the Earth’s rotation starting to change.

Technology that relies on satellites in orbit will start to experience problems.

For example, the orbit of a geostationary satellite is synchronized with the movement of the earth so that its position remains above the same point on the equator.

But with the Earth stopping, satellites will no longer appear ‘still’ in the sky above us, making it impossible to maintain the telecommunications and light monitoring systems that depend on satellites.

Read also: Why does Earth only have one moon?

It is also possible that we experience a loss of the magnetic field and all the benefits it provides, such as protection from harmful radiation.

The Earth’s magnetic field is believed to be related to the planet’s rotation.

Ultimately, the Earth will be tidally locked with the Sun. This condition causes one side of the Earth to be exposed to continuous rays and heat from the Sun, while the other side will be immersed in eternal night and become very cold.

This situation is unfavorable for many life forms.

Life forms that carry out photosynthesis or depend on organisms that carry out photosynthesis for food will become extinct and life on Earth will experience mass extinction.

Even if the Earth’s movement slowed, it would still be a disaster. According to Science Focus, without centrifugal force, the ocean would move towards the poles, thereby reducing the depth of the sea by 8 km around the equator.

Since this depth is less than the depth of the oceans there, the water on Earth would be divided into two large polar oceans separated by a strip of land in the middle.

Read also: What Would Happen if the Entire Earth’s Surface Was Drilled?

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2024-01-02 09:00:00
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