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

Introduction

When I was growing up as a kid; and in the later part of my primary school; I was taught that our workaholic Earth rotates round its axis, it also revolves around the sun. Okay, at least, I learnt something in primary school, but what if the earth decides to break the rules and pause for; maybe; a week? Lol. I'm sure you're already screaming "impossible!!", but for the purpose of this survey, and for the reasons of scientific analysis, we would just assume it is possible - even though I know the earth wouldn't be so naughty to do that anytime soon. Here, we'll look at the events that would result from the earth pausing for a while.

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First of all; and for the benefit of those that don't already know; the earth is in a constant motion, and not just a motion, but with an insane speed - spinning (rotating), and also revolving. And by astronomical calculations; the spinning is done at a whopping 1,670 km/h, while the revolution is in the excess of 107,226 km/h_[ref]. But why do we not feel the movement ourselves? Okay I'll ask you this: If you're in a fast bullet-train, do you feel the movement yourself? The only things that would appear to move are trees, houses, structures, etc, while you'll feel relatively static. This same thing happens in the case of the earth's movement - we're not feeling the movement because, in relation to everyone else on earth, we're static, but the earth; when compared to other stellar bodies; is moving at an insane speed.

As a matter of fact; since the formation of the earth some billions of years ago, it hasn't taken a break - I mean, how would life even have survived if the earth were to be static? That means, only one part of the earth would get light from the sun, and the other part would perpetually be in darkness. Of course, the side facing the sun would be baked in no time. But something; according to this report, and this report; happened in the early days of our solar system (note: since none of us lived through history to witness this first-hand, we're only dependent on cosmic archeology, and written/oral records). There was a collision within our solar system that mutilated the nature of the earth’s spin; and as reported by the same publication, the earth lost some of its speed.

Though the reduction of speed does not equate to absolute cessation of movement, but over the years, it has been observed that a micro fraction of the earth's speed is being lost over-time. What idea does this give you? Okay hold on. Even after the creation of our own natural satellite; the moon; which was credited to be the resultant effect of that same collision that occured within our solar system, the moon wasn't synced with the earth (in terms of speed), obviously, the moon had more speed. Then how did these two get aligned to get synced? Ever heard of Tidal Locking before? I guess this should take credit for the alignment of the moon and the earth.

Tidal Locking is an occurrence in which a stellar body has a period of rotation that is in sympathy with the rotational period around its partner. - Paraphrased from source

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But yeah! The moon couldn't have just slowed down to allow the earth to match up with the speed - well, I guess that was why the moon had to take a little walk away from the earth; so that it would compensate the effect of the earth's tidal locking on the moon. How little did the moon move? Okay, it's about 230,000miles away _[ref]. That means, if the earth is really slowing down by little fractions every year, the moon would also be taking further walk (hope it wouldn't finally take a long-walk far away from the earth and be gone forever? lol, I'm kidding). Now, let's go back to the scenario we're considering - that is; if the earth pauses.

Pause the earth

Have you ever been in a very fast-moving vehicle, and all of a sudden, the driver does an automatic break (maybe to avoid an obstacle), what do you feel? Exactly; you would feel a force that would push you from your seat, and if you're not on seatbelt, you could break the windscreen with your head. That's exactly what you'd experience with the earth pausing; but you ain't breaking any windscreen, because, of course, the earth doesn't have a windscreen.

But remember this; even though the moon is tidally locked with the earth, the earth; on the other hand; is not tidally locked with the sun (yet). So in the event of a sudden pause in the earth's rotation (from about 1000miles per hour), the whole occupants of the earth - humans and things, would race off (in the same direction, and with the same speed - just like the car scenario I gave us). Imagine if it happens when you're about commenting on this post; both you, your laptop, your house, and every other stuff (including oceans, etc) would fly away, lol. But that's not where the major catastrophe lies.

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Let's look at the other scenario: What if it's only the earth's lithosphere (that's the solid part of the earth) that paused, but the atmosphere still maintained the normal speed? Now, the catastrophe is brewing. Normally, the central core has a much faster spin when compared to the surface. So pausing this would massively destabilize both the core and the surface - and as you know, the earth's core is insanely hot (ever wondered where hot lava comes from? Now you're thinking what I'm thinking). The destabilizing of the earth's core could trigger a very huge volcanic eruption that has never been witnessed in the history of the earth.

If the earth survives that eruption, then what's the next stage? Just as you imagined; half of the earth would face the sun, while the other side would shy away from it. And the area that perpetually faces the sun would so much receive the sun's heat that the atmosphere would start to wear off, and not just that; that side would be like a freshly baked cake, and even the water bodies would boil (of course you would expect this; because water; at its pure form; has an average boiling point of 100^o Celsius at STP). When the water bodies begin to boil, it wouldn't take too long for them to start evaporating. I'm sure that even the Mercury and Venus would be laughing at the Earth right now, lol.

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What would be the fate of humankind? Sure, we've been known to be the species that have shown the most favorable adaptative features; and that is the reason we've survived this long, even after about five massive extinctions of species. But come to think of it; if humans were able to survive the immediate pause of the earth (and the force that would cause them to "fly" off at the insane speed of what the earth was paused from), what about the remote effects; like the heating of one part of the earth, and the bone-chilling cold of the other half? Oh yeah! the area around the Prime Meridian (that's the line that vertically divides the earth into equal halves) would get a fair dose of the light from the sun, and also darkness, because it is in the middle. But how many people would exist in that area? But at least; it could take some people.

Maybe another option would be an extraterrestrial colony. After all, we've been speculating that humans would evolve to achieve multiplanetary status. But in any case; we don't expect our darling earth to give up spinning; and least, not in this century.

Conclusion

The earth; just like other planets we're familiar with; rotates round its axis, and that's the reason we have "day and night". But what if the earth stops? First of all, "day and night" would go into oblivion, and other catastrophes we've talked about would be imminent; and the fate of humanity would be in the brink of obliteration. But glad to know the earth isn't that cold-hearted yet to stop spinning... well, except you get it angry, lol.

Thanks for reading

References for further reading:

• Giant impact/moon formation
• Slowing down of earth's rotation
• Movement of the earth and tidal locking
• Rotation of the earth - NASA

All images are CC Licensed and are linked to their sources

Credit: @gtg