If the Earth Stood Still

Re:If the Earth Stood Still by billswift on Tuesday July 27, 2010 @06:25PM (#1552941)

I thought about that also, but I think it would take much longer for the crust to change to a spherical shape; much the way that large parts of the northern hemisphere are still rebounding from the loss of ice cover at the end of the last ice age.

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Re:If the Earth Stood Still by strait on Tuesday July 27, 2010 @08:48PM (#1553198)

Also providing a dampening effect on this transformation, are the weight of both oceans, which are now bearing down at both poles. Water is quite dense, being about 1/3 the density of the earth's top crust. Also, interestingly, it seems like the density and pressure of the atmosphere would be significantly greater at sealevel, especially at the southern hemisphere sealevel, though obviously not much of a factor in crustal transformation.

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Re:If the Earth Stood Still by Retric on Wednesday July 28, 2010 @08:49AM (#1554215)

The earths crust deforms ~1cm each day due to tidal forces. So while it might take a long time to move the last inch or so, the first few miles would change within hours. In fact with an instantaneous stop it would go past a perfect sphere and probably osculate.

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