Supersonic tumbleweed, human 'bullets' and winds faster than an atomic explosion: Video reveals what would happen if the Earth stopped turning

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We hardly ever think about it, but the Earth we’re standing on rotates at around 1,100 miles per hour (1,670 km/h).

But what if that rotation suddenly stopped? That's what Michael Stevens, also known as Vsauce on YouTube, set out to answer with his latest video.

The London-based scientist has outlined the devastating impact that a sudden halt to the Earth’s rotation would have on life as we know it.

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Michael Stevens, also known as Vsauce on YouTube, has described what would happen if Earth stopped turning. The gravity of the still Earth is the strongest at the polar regions (shown in green). It is intermediate in the middle latitudes and weakest at the high altitudes of the Andes, close to the equator

If the Earth stopped spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be in motion with the Earth's original 1,100 mile per hour (1,670 km/h) rotation speed at the equator.

Stevens describes how most people would die a horrific death.

‘Immediately everything that wasn’t on Earth and wasn’t safely at the poles would continue to moving as it had,’ he explains.

‘It would be flung due east at 1000mph…Your body would immediately become a 9inch calibre bullet.’

Those who were somehow able to survive turning into 'supersonic tumbleweed' would have powerful winds to contend with, which could destroy everything in their path.

‘Gusts of wind as fast as those near an atomic bomb detonation would blast past the surface and up into the sky forming worldwide storms of unprecedented magnitude,’ continued Mr Stevens.

‘The friction alone, caused by the now stopped Earth colliding with these winds would be enough to cause massive fires and unparalleled erosion’.

Meanwhile, Earth’s magnetic field would cease to exist and we would be dosed with deadly amounts of ionising radiation.

The Earth would become an almost perfect sphere, as the current rotational velocity causes the Earth to bulge out around its equator.

Because of the Earth’s bulge in the middle, the oceans are held out at the equator by 5 miles (8 km).

On a perfect sphere Earth, the world’s oceans would redistribute, flooding many areas of the planet with a huge volume of water.

Those who are somehow able to survive turning into 'supersonic tumbleweed' would have powerful winds to contend with, which could destroy everything in their path. ‘Gusts of wind as fast as those near an atomic bomb detonation would blast past the surface,’ explained Stevens

If the Earth’s rotation slowed to one every 365 days, a condition called 'sun synchronous', every spot in the Earth would have permanent daytime or night-time all year long.

This is similar to the situation on the moon where for two weeks the front-side is illuminated by the sun, and for two weeks the back side is illuminated.

If it stopped spinning completely, the world would have half a year daylight, and half a year night time.

‘The yearly change in the sun's position in the sky would now be just its seasonal motion up and down the sky towards the south due to the orbit of the Earth and its axial tilt,’ Nasa said.

‘As you moved along constant lines of Earth latitude, you would see the elevation of the sun increase or decrease in the sky just as we now see the elevation of the sun change from a single point on the Earth due to the Earth's daily rotation.’

But while this may sound horrific, according to Nasa, the probability for such an event is ‘practically zero’ in the next few billion years.

Earth’s magnetic field would cease to exist and we would be dosed with deadly amounts of ionising radiation