What would happen if the Earth continues to spin faster? Stronger hurricanes, disastrous earthquakes and catastrophic flooding, expert says

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Scientists have warned that this summer could include some of the shortest days of your entire life.
On July 22 and August 5, experts predict the day will be 1.38 and 1.51 milliseconds shorter than average, respectively.
This is because the planet's rotation has entered an unexpected period of acceleration, shaving a millisecond or so off the length of a solar day.
But what would happen if the world just kept getting faster?
Given that a blink takes 100 milliseconds, you are unlikely to notice any big changes for a long time.
However, scientists say that unchecked acceleration would eventually lead to disastrous consequences.
If Earth were spinning just 100 miles per hour faster than it does now, the world would be hit by stronger hurricanes, catastrophic flooding, and the collapse of satellite networks.
And, if the world were to double its speed, it would likely be the end of life as we know it.
One mile per hour faster
On average, it takes the planet 24 hours, or 86,400 seconds, to complete one full rotation, which is called a solar day.
Small fluctuations like the location of the moon or volcanic eruptions can shift this around a millisecond in either direction, but the rotation is generally fairly stable.
Because the Earth is a sphere, its circumference is smaller near the poles than at the equator, so the planet's surface moves faster the further you get from the poles.
Someone standing at the equator is rotating in space at around 1,037 mph (1,668 kmph) while somebody in London is only moving at about 646 mph (1,041 kmph).
Compared to these speeds, an increase of just one mile per hour might not seem like a big difference.
The days would be about a minute and a half shorter overall, which our body clocks probably wouldn't notice right away.
Witold Fraczek, an analyst at ESRI, a mapping software firm, told Popular Science: 'It might take a few years to notice it.'
However, an unexpected effect is that satellites in orbit would soon be knocked out of sync.
Some satellites are 'geosynchronous', meaning they move at the same speed as Earth's rotation to stay over the same location.
If the Earth speeds up, those satellites will lose their position and navigation, communication, and weather monitoring services would start to fail.
However, some satellites carry fuel to adjust their orbit, and others could be replaced, so the results should not be disastrous.
Mr Fraczek says: 'These could disturb the life and comfort of some people, but should not be catastrophic to anybody.
The bigger impact is that water would start to move from the poles to the equator due to the increased centrifugal forces.
Even at just one mile per hour, this would cause sea levels to rise by a few inches around the equator.
For cities already at or very near sea level, this could lead to devastating flooding.
100 miles per hour faster
If the Earth kept accelerating until it was moving 100 miles per hour faster at the equator, this would start to trigger seriously dangerous consequences.
Rather than rising by a few inches, these speeds would start to drown the equator as water rushed down from the poles.
Mr Fraczek says: 'I think the Amazon Basin, Northern Australia, and not to mention the islands in the equatorial region, they would all go under water.
'How deep underwater, I'm not sure, but I'd estimate about 30 to 65 feet.'
For anyone who survived the flooding, the world would start to become a much more hostile place.
The solar day would now only last 22 hours, knocking our circadian rhythms out of their natural balance.
The effect would be like setting your body clock back two hours every day without being given a chance to adjust.
Could the world keep getting faster?
It is extremely unlikely that the world will start to spin faster.
In fact, the world is actually slowing down over time.
About 4.4 billion years ago, the planet was spinning so fast that days lasted four minutes.
But this slowed down after a large object hit Earth and created the moon.
The only way Earth could speed up is if a large object hits at just the right angle.
But this would likely liquify the planet's crust, so no humans would survive to see the results.
Studies have shown that changes like daylight saving lead to increased rates of heart attacks, strokes, and driving accidents - this would be even more severe.
Additionally, Earth's weather would start to become more extreme.
NASA astronomer Dr Sten Odenwald says: 'Temperature difference is still going to be the main driver of winds.
However, at these speeds, Dr Odenwald says that 'hurricanes will spin faster, and there will be more energy in them.'
This is due to something called the Coriolis effect, which gives hurricanes their rotational energy.
If the Earth didn't spin, winds would blow down from the North Pole to the equator in a straight line. But as the Earth rotates, the wind becomes deflected eastward, and this is what gives a hurricane its spin.
If the world starts to spin faster, the winds would be deflected more, and the Coriolis effect would become stronger.
Dr Odenwald says: 'That effectively makes the rotation more severe.'
1,000 miles per hour faster or more
At 1,000 miles per hour faster, Earth would be rotating roughly twice as fast as it does today, with disastrous consequences.
Mr Fraczek says: 'It would clearly be a disaster.'
The centrifugal forces would pull hundreds of feet of water towards the equator.
'Except for the highest mountains, such as Kilimanjaro or the highest summits of the Andes, I think everything in the equatorial region would be covered with water,' says Mr Fraczek.
At 1,000 miles per hour faster, the centrifugal forces generated by spinning would also be much stronger.
This would make it easier for water to escape the force of gravity and evaporate up into the atmosphere.
The already flooded regions of the equator would experience near-constant rain and would be constantly shrouded in fog and mist.
At really extreme speeds of around 17,000 miles per hour (27,350 kmph), 17 times faster than normal, the centrifugal forces would be powerful enough to overwhelm gravity.
Anyone at the equator would become weightless as centrifugal force counteracted gravity, and you might even start to get 'reverse rain' as water falls up into the atmosphere.
However, it is unlikely that there would be anyone around to see this since the equator would have long since become uninhabitable.
Mr Franczek says: 'If those few miserable humans would still be alive after most of Earth's water had been transferred to the atmosphere and beyond, they would clearly want to run out of the equator area as soon as possible.'
Finally, once the planet started to reach speeds of about 24,000 miles per hour (38,600 kmph) at the equator, life as we know it would pretty much be over.
The centrifugal forces would now be so strong that they would start to flatten out the Earth like a spinning ball of clay.
The tectonic plates would shift and the Earth's crust would crack, leading to catastrophic results.
Mr Franczek says: 'We would have enormous earthquakes. The tectonic plates would move quickly and that would be disastrous to life on the globe.'