What if moon was closer to earth

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Some of the energy of the spinning Earth gets transferred to the tidal bulge via friction. This drives the bulge forward, keeping it ahead of the Moon.

The tidal bulge feeds a small amount of energy into the Moon, pushing it into a higher orbit like the faster, outside lanes of a test track. This phenomenon is similar to the experience one feels on a children's roundabout. The faster the roundabout spins the stronger the feeling of being slung outwards.

But the energy gained as the Moon is pushed higher is balanced by a reduction in the energy of its motion - so an acceleration provided by the Earth's tides is actually slowing the Moon down. While 3. On early Earth, when the Moon was newly formed, days were five hours long, but with the Moon's braking effect operating on the Earth for the last 4. We can see some evidence of the slowdown in the fossil records of some creatures. By looking at the daily growth bands of corals we can calculate the numbers of days that occurred per year in past periods, and from this we can see that days are getting longer, at a rate of 19 hours every 4.

The length of a day, or in other words the rotation speed of the planet, plays a big part in its stability. Just like keeping a plate spinning on a stick, the key is to have the plate spinning fast, as if it slows down it crashes to the floor.

In a similar way, as the Earth's rotation slows down, our whole planet may start to slowly wobble and this will have a devastating effect on our seasons.

We have the seasons we currently do, due to the Earth's tilt at an angle of 23 degrees on its axis. During summer the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun so we get longer days and warmer weather. In fact, the flooding scenario from the movie isn't far from what might actually happen if the moon were suddenly much closer to Earth , said Neil Comins, a physicist at the University of Maine.

The best-known effect of the moon is its gravitational pull on Earth's oceans, which results in two high tides and two low tides every day.

But if the moon were half the distance from Earth as it is now, the tides would be eight times higher, Comins told Live Science. Some islands would be completely underwater for much of the day, and populated coastlines would likely become uninhabitable because of the high tides, he added.

Related: If you're on the moon, does Earth appear to go through phases? But higher ocean tides wouldn't be the only result of a closer moon.

The moon also has a tidal effect on Earth's land , Comins said. If the moon were suddenly twice as close to Earth, the effect would be like hitting a gong with a mallet, Comins said: Waves of energy would reverberate through the planet due to the sudden increased strength of the moon's gravitational pull.

And that sudden whack of gravity "would actually impact the Earth's crust, which means it might trigger more earthquakes , might trigger more volcanic eruptions," said Jazmin Scarlett, a historical and social volcanologist at the Queen Mary University of London. Take, for example, Jupiter's moon Io , the most volcanically active world in the solar system, Scarlett said. Io's volcanism results from the push and pull from the gravity of Jupiter and two of its other moons.

Earth might see a similar fate if the moon were suddenly half as close.