I know what exactly will happen if the earth stops rotating all of a sudden – the momentum would cause untold destruction and everything not securely anchored to the ground would be hurled eastward at devastating speeds. I’ve seen a shittona clickbaity videos on YouTube. I also know the final result of this would be 6 months of daytime and 6 months of night. But what would be the other visible effects on earth which would start as soon the deceleration begins? Will we be able to survive?
In: Planetary Science
The slowdown itself would be harmless and likely unnoticable. There would be a sideways acceleration about one bilionth the gravitational acceleration.
The disruption of the climate would however be immense. Just turning off the coriolis effect would remove the driver from many ocean currents, resulting in a more stagnant ocean. Meanwhile the easterly and westerly winds are also due to the coriolis effect. They would be replaced with winds blowing from the equator towards the poles largely uninterupted.
Not to worry, because this would be overwritten by the consequences of extremely long days. The poles might remain remotely hospitable, but the rest of Earth would alternate between polar winter and summers unlike anything on Earth today. The massive temperature difference would drive extremely powerful winds between the day and night side, making even the transition unlivable.
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