What Happens If Earth Stops Rotating?
Before answering this question let us first understand Newton's first law of motion which states “An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force”.
In simple words, once something is moving, it naturally wants to keep moving, unless an external force tries to stop it.
This natural tendency of objects to resist any change in their state of motion is called inertia.
Earth, Sun and our solar system exist in almost perfect vacuum in space where there is no significant external torque. This is why when planets start spinning at the time of their formation, that rotation continues naturally according to the above principle.
Now imagine….
What would happen if Earth stopped spinning for a moment?
This is not only an imaginary question, but also a way to understand a few dangerous and fascinating consequences of physics. In this article, we will step-by-step understand how life, ocean, atmosphere and planet would be affected after Earth stopped spinning.
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Earth is currently spinning at a rate of 1600-1700 Km/hour. If it stops spinning then due to inertia, air, ocean, buildings, vehicles and we will start moving with old speed, that is 1600-1700 Km/hour. Just like if a moving car applies brakes, we will fall forward - the car stops but our body continues in motion. Result? Supersonic winds will sweep away cities and ocean water will surge onto continents.
But this would be just a start.
It is only the earth’s rotation which causes global winds, ocean currents, and Coriolis effect ( The Coriolis effect causes objects traveling long distances across the Earth, such as airplanes or air currents, to appear to move along a curved path rather than in a straight line.) Immediately after spin stops, the climate system would collapse. Some places will experience daylight for months, others night for months. Normal existence of life would be next to impossible due to extreme temperature.
This chaos will have the deepest impact on the ecosystem. Plants, animals and humans that have evolved for today’s climate will simply not have time to adapt. The food chain will be broken, mass extinction could occur and human civilization - which rests on agriculture and infrastructure - will be forced into survival mode. But the destruction would not stop at the surface or the climate alone.
There is a very powerful magnetic field around the earth, known as magnetosphere. It is generated due to the moving dynamic forces in the core of the earth that protects our atmosphere from the solar wind, coronal mass ejections and harmful cosmic rays coming from deep space. The magnetosphere acts as a gatekeeper, which stops dangerous energy from reaching the earth surface, and most of the charged, energetic particles get trapped in Van Allen Belts, a doughnut-shaped region far above the earth’s atmosphere.
As soon as Earth's rotation stops, its magnetic shield slowly begins to break down. Then solar winds and cosmic radiation hit Earth without any interruption, making survival almost impossible.
Earth’s rotation could not be felt
But if it stops,
Then our lives would also get a full stop.
Will the earth ever stop spinning?
Did you know that about 1 to 2 billion years ago, a day on earth was 19 hours long and now it is a bit more than 24 hours long, so it is obvious in our mind that will the earth ever stop spinning? But before answering this question let us first understand what is causing the Earth’s rotation to slow down?
This is due to the combined effect of multiple scientific processes, such as:
Tidal braking
Mass redistribution
Geological events
Atmospheric and Oceanic Dynamics
Core Dynamics
All these factors together are slowing Earth's rotation on the scale of milliseconds per century—
so slowly that we can only measure it with atomic clocks and precision instruments.
So will the Earth ever stop?
👉 Absolutely not.
Yes, the Earth's rotation is gradually slowing, but this process will take billions of years. Even before, the Sun will make the Earth inhabitable, the Earth's complete stopping will never become a real possibility.
A fascinating fact about Earth’s motion
Earth revolves around the sun in a fixed orbit and in respect to stars it completes its one complete revolution in 365 days, 6 hours, and 9 minutes. Due to its elliptical orbit, Earth does not have constant orbital speed around the sun, and it is approximately 29.29 to 30.29 Km/s.
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