Our Earth is Slowing Down By Katherine Lightwood

Our Earth is Slowing Down

By Katherine Lightwood

No matter what happens, we can rest easy knowing that tomorrow is a new day!! But that might not be something we will be able to say in billion years. The earth's spin is slowing down.

Eventually, days will get longer, and when they do, the lack of daily dawn could be the least of our problems The earth's spins because of the mars size body that smashed into it when it was young. The collisions set our planet spinning so fast that the days were about 6 hours long. And it simultaneously knocked out a chunk of material that coalesced to become the moon. Then the earth and the moon settled into a 'Gravitational Relationship' one of the effects of which was the moon causes tides on the earth.

But with the every tide cycle, the sloshing of earth's water exerts a little bit of friction of earth's surface and it's slowing down the earth's rotation slightly. And every time the earth's rotation slows, the mon moves a little bit further away. Over time, our day went 6 to 24 hours and the moon retreated to its current distance of about a quarter of a million miles. And all the while life on earth adapted to a planet with 24 hrs a day, tides, seasons and atmosphere whose wind patterns move from east to west.

Tidal friction can eventually slow down the earth significantly, and like the laws of physics won't allow it to stop completely. Whatever will be the consequence but have you ever wondered what would happen during the slow down of earth's speed. A non-rotating earth would have a day that has half a year of sunlight and half a year of night time. Similar to tidally locked planets like Mercury. This would make the days hotter and night colder, especially at the poles owing to the tilt of the earth's axis. This would change a global wind pattern to a north-south orientation moving from a cool equator and hot poles. The mid-latitudes would be some nonextreme places with an atmospheric density that would support life which means if there is a land to live on. Our earth isn't a perfect sphere.

It is bulbous at the equator because of its rotation. As the rotation slows the ocean would migrate towards the poles leaving a mega-continent around the equator. And this new continent would have some interesting geology. The layers of the earth will all slow down at different rates, the resulting friction causing massive earthquakes and volcanic activity before the everything stops. And without the spinning core, we would lose the protective magnetic field making the planet and its atmosphere vulnerable to solar radiation. and that's how everything will come to an end. But don't worry, you will not live long enough to watch all these apocalypses. It will happen after billions of years ago.

So, that was my thought of the day. To see more posts like this make sure to visit our main page. And Do not forget to visit our institute's page to know more about graphic design, 3D, animation courses and other awesome stuff. Till then good day to you.

Katherine Lightwood