What Terrifying Chaos Would Unfold If Earth Suddenly Stopped Spinning?

Ever stopped to wonder what would happen if the Earth just said, “You know what? I’m done spinning” and called it quits? Sounds like the setup to some apocalyptic sci-fi flick, right? But nope, it’s a bona fide nightmare scenario that’s been brought to life by a spine-tingling simulation from Zack D Films on YouTube. Our planet’s daily 24-hour spin — that cozy 1,000 miles per hour pirouette — is what gifts us sunrise, sunset, and frankly, all the comfy predictability we take for granted. Now imagine all that suddenly halting. Spoiler alert: you wouldn’t just notice; you’d be hurtled eastward at breakneck speed, along with everything else not nailed down — cars, trees, oceans… you get the drift. And if that’s not enough to wrestle your brain into disbelief, hold tight because the aftermath includes magnetic field collapse, planet-frying heat, and, well, the end of just about everything alive. It’s like Mother Nature flipped the ultimate “game over” switch. Curious about the wild details and how our very own Earth’s dizzying spin keeps us safe and sane? LEARN MORE

A frightening simulation shows what would happen if the world was to stop spinning.

As we all know (and if you don’t, give your head a wobble), our planet is constantly rotating around, and around, and around on its own axis.

Of course, with the Earth spinning, we therefore have the sunrise and sunset – so rather than the Sun being the thing that’s moving, it’s our spinning that makes its position in the sky change.

Going at 1,000 miles per hour, it takes 24 hours to complete a full rotation. Yes, what a coincidence, a full day.

And this spinning is obviously essential, even if we don’t actually notice it. But as he always does, the trusty Zack D Films on YouTube has created a simulation to explain how you really would notice if the world did somehow stop spinning.

The Earth is constantly spinning. (NASA)

Unsurprisingly, it’s not particularly pretty and would cause scenes straight out of a disaster film.

Placing an animated hand to stop the movement of the globe, the simulation explains: “If the Earth suddenly stopped spinning, you’d instantly be thrown east at over a thousand miles an hour.”

It says the ‘force of the movement’ would keep everything moving at the same speed.

Pretty scarily, the simulation shows cars, trees, peoples, rocks and just, well, all sorts flying through the air super fast. Like I said, disaster movie.

“Anything not attached would go flying,” it says. “Even oceans would shift with devastating force.”

And yeah, it then shows what is essentially just a giant tsunami spreading across the globe.

“And since the atmosphere would keep going too, powerful winds would blast across the planet.”

The simulation explains that ‘without the spin’, the planet’s magnetic field could ‘collapse’.

Then here comes the biggie: “The planet would quickly fry, causing total extinction.”

BBC Sky at Night Magazine explains that if the planet’s spin gradually stopped, the effects would also occur gradually, resulting in longer days and nights.

Our circadian rhythm would also be disturbed and weather patterns would start to change.

Eventually, one side of the Earth would be subjected to continuous daylight and heat from the Sun, while the other would be in constant darkness, getting super cold.

Many forms of life on the planet would therefore suffer a mass extinction.