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Thursday, July 29, 2010

Map of What the World Would Like If the Globe Slowed then Stopped Spinning

The oceans of the world would migrate to the pole because of the relatively heaver gravity

ESRI produced a series of maps of what the world would look like if the globe stop spinning. The key paragraphs are

If the earth's gravity alone was responsible for creating a new geography, the huge bulge of oceanic water—which is now about 8 km high at the equator—would migrate to where a stationary earth's gravity would be the strongest. This bulge is attributed to the centrifugal effect of earth's spinning with a linear speed of 1,667 km/hour at the equator. The existing equatorial water bulge also inflates the ellipsoidal shape of the globe itself.

and

If the earth stood still, the oceans would gradually migrate toward the poles and cause land in the equatorial region to emerge. This would eventually result in a huge equatorial megacontinent and two large polar oceans. The line that delineates the areas that hydrologically contribute to one or the other ocean would follow the equator if the earth was a perfect ellipsoid. However, due to the significant relief of both the continents and the ocean floor, the hypothetical global divide between the areas that hydrologically contribute to one or another ocean deviates from the equator significantly. Analogous to the well-known U.S. Continental Divide, this would be the border separating two giant hemispherical watersheds of the new circumpolar oceans.

2 comments:

acuvue oasys said...

Thanks for this - the earth image without the spinning looks surreal!

Ryan said...

The mid-atlantic ridge would be a heck of a tourist attraction.

Talk about a land bridge!