Continuing our conversation from Science Friday, I wanted to ask about the likely effects if the earth was suddenly and quickly to rotate 90°, so that the Equator effectively became the Prime Meridian and vice versa.
Mass chaos? Tidal waves? Seismic shifts in the plates of the earth?
At the very least it would cause a Twitter storm.
That would be an unbelievable amount of energy. It would melt the crust and boil the oceans. The atmosphere would fly off into space as would everything on the surface. The stopping of the turn would be the same amount of energy. The earth is a rocky planet, but it is not a rock. There would be a good probability that the planet itself would fall apart.
We are talking LOTS OF ENERGY.
So, like, Twitter would be blowing up?
Only those with really, really, really fast internet service.