If the Earth Stood Still

http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0610/nospin.html

by bjonathan • 16 years ago

76 14 16 years ago

nix• 16 years ago

They modeled gravity but not the atmosphere. So the most drastic effect isn't even mentioned - the much longer day length would roast the planet on one side and freeze it on the other.

Also, no mention of what the weather would be like without Coriolis "force" - no cyclones, no prevailing westerlies, no geostrophic winds. Would you get one big Bénard cell or multiples? (Currently there are six).

I suspect that these changes would be much more dramatic than the ones they discuss. Surely some hard SF writer has thought through this further?

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

I don't think weather is what they were interested in.

Notice they said it was done to demonstrate GIS technology, and GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems

gallipoli• 16 years ago

You might have confused "geographic" with "geologic". The use of GIS for meteorology is probably just a little younger than GIS itself.

wlievens• 16 years ago

Weather is most certainly one of the primary domains of interest of GIS.

Retric2• 16 years ago

The other major issue with his analysis is the earth's crust would deform from its current shape into a nearly perfect sphere. The earth is well above the defined limit where a planets shape simply a sphere deformed based on their rotational velocity. So the mega continent he suggests would never form.

billswift• 16 years ago

I thought about that also, but I think it would take much longer for the crust to change to a spherical shape; much the way that large parts of the northern hemisphere are still rebounding from the loss of ice cover at the end of the last ice age.

Nagyman• 16 years ago

Earth has locked rotation with the sun rather than stopped altogether, but this is related and a fun read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hothouse_(novel)

zeynel1• 16 years ago

i think the title is misleading - they mean if the earth stopped --rotating-- around its axis

ugh• 16 years ago

If the Earth stopped altogether it should fall into the Sun. No maps to draw, then :)

hugh3• 16 years ago

Not if it also stopped falling.

boredguy8• 16 years ago

Stopped altogether from which frame of reference? ;)

gcanyon• 16 years ago

I think they're overlooking the effect on the atmosphere. If the water will all flow to the poles, so will the air. If the difference in distance to the center of the earth is 21km then there would be little air left at the equator -- it would be like standing on Everest, or thereabout. Plant and animal life would not survive across broad regions of what is currently inhabitable land.

Further, the water at the poles would be extemely deep, and subject to cold (winter) temps year.

If the Earth Stood Still

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