The centripetal force of the Earth’s rotation causes land and oceans alike to bulge out at the equator. But what would happen if the Earth were to stop spinning? The oceans would quickly adjust to the new equilibrium by surging to the poles, drowning everywhere outside of the temperate regions and leaving vast swaths of equatorial ocean basins high and dry. The folks at ESRI are happy to show off their geographic prowess by describing the process in detail. Hat tip: Popular Science.
AUTHOR
Hans
Hans G. Schantz is the Principal Scientist of Geeks and Nerds Corporation (GaN). He was co-founder and CTO of Q-Track Corporation until GaN's acquisition of Q-Track in 2019. Co-inventor of NFER indoor location technology, he has more than 40 U.S. patents to his credit. He is the author of The Art and Science of Ultrawideband Antennas, The Biographies of John Charles Fremont, and the science fiction thriller, The Hidden Truth, available free through Kindle Unlimited. Dr. Schantz earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Huntsville, AL with his wife, Barbara, and four children.
615 posts
You may also like
John Herman Randall described Aristotle’s scientific investigation as “the passionate search for passionless truth.” Many histories of science fail to capture the […]
Ever had an interest in celestial mechanics? Then you have hours of fun in store from “My Solar System,” a celestial mechanics […]
Radioactive decay rates are generally thought to be invariant constants of nature. Some minor temperature dependent effects have been observed, but even […]
Harvard’s Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations team produced a remarkable video showing fifteen uncoupled pendulums. The pendulums were designed so as to have […]