What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?

What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?

Everything that is just lying around, including humans, cars and animals that are not safely secured will suddenly start flying eastward at 1000 miles per hour.

The Earth rotates at an average speed of 1000 miles per hour, splitting the 24 hours into nights and days along with winds, tides and varying temperatures. So what do you think would happen if this rotation, that is so important to us suddenly stopped?

Now imagine owning the fastest, super-sports car in the world, with no traffic or police patrol on the way. So obviously, you would test the car’s top speed driving at 1000 miles per hour. You suddenly hit the brakes, your car stops suddenly but you don’t and that is exactly what would happen if the Earth suddenly stopped spinning.

Everything that is just lying around, including humans, cars and animals that are not safely secured will suddenly start flying eastward at 1000 miles per hour. It would like the winds that are four times stronger than the fastest winds ever recorded which is only 253 miles per hour. The 1000 miles per hour feeling is similar to an atomic blast.

In less than a minute, towering tsunamis would sweep more than 17 miles inland. All the water from the world’s oceans would surge towards the poles.

Since Earth is bulged at the Equator, the North and South poles are closer to the center of the Earth and therefore have a stronger gravitational pull. The seven seas in the world will form into two, to form two giant oceans one at the North pole and the other at the South pole.

Canada, most of Europe and Russia would be completely submerged. Boston, Chicago and Seattle would also be under water along with parts of Argentina, Chile and New Zealand.

This oceanic change would create a massive super-continent along the Equator wrapping around the entire Earth.

Resources would be scarce, the world would experience wide-scale drought and most species would be endangered, if not extinct by then.

Agriculture would be nearly impossible since a day full will now last one entire year. In other words, you’d see the sun for six months straight and the other half of the year in complete darkness. This would disrupt the natural transition between seasons.

Over the time, the final, fatal consequence would be the loss of our magnetic field. Apart from giving us a sense of direction, Earth’s magnetic field ensures our survival by deflecting solar winds which otherwise would rip out our ozone layer and blast us with strong, harmful radiations. The deadly cosmic rays would kill all living things on the planet. And over time, the Earth we know of today will turn into Mars.

Even if the Earth won’t come to a screeching stop, the world will one day come to a stop but not in the near future, in about 18.5 billion years only. So for now, enjoy the time you have through the day and night.

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