What if Earth suddenly stopped spinning?

What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity?

Henry Reich is the creator of MinutePhysics and executive producer of MinuteEarth and MinuteFood and founder of Neptune Studios (the parent company for all three youtube channels).

Credits
Narrated by and based on "What If?" by Randall Munroe
Written & Directed by Henry Reich
Illustration and Video Editing by Lizah van der Aart
Illustration and Animation by Ever Salazar
Music & Sound Effects by Know Art Studios

What If? The Video Series is the official adaptation of the What If? books by Randall Munroe and is produced by Neptune Studios LLC.

©2023 xkcd, inc.

[kasterborous]

“First, nearly everyone would die; second, things would get interesting” should be this channel’s motto.

[DavidTriphon]

"They'd probably be confused, until someone noticed that the Sun had stopped moving across the sky. Then they'd be really confused."
This sounds like a perfect setup for a horror story.

[lemeres]

3:55 Great job breaking everything, ANDREW.

[JosephStalin]

My grandfather, a US Marine, was stationed in San Juan, Puerto Rico in August of 1955 when Hurricane Connie struck the island with wind speeds of 140 miles per hour. He had been ordered to take shelter in a concrete bunker with six feet thick walls only a few meters uphill from a large sandy beach. After spending days stuck in the bunker, he said that after the storm had subsided and they were able to go outside, the sand from the beach and the wind had acted like a sandblaster and reduced the thickness of the wall to only 3 or 4 feet.

[residentgeardo]

"This is all Andrews fault" 🤣 These videos are brilliant... very enjoyable to watch!

[xetto]

i always thought that if the earth stopped spinning we would all get thrown off the planet 💀

[AM-wees]

Nomad civilisations following the never-ending twilight/dawn over the course of a year in that small habitable zone between the scorching day and freezing night sounds like a banger post-apocalypse

[hiftu]

Solution: We never ever again let Andrew near to any computers to ask for such disaster.

[nemtudom]

2:05 The implication that they'd notice because the cats not moving is just hilarious!

[noneofyourbusiness]

You removed the cutest bit of this, where the moon says “hey… hey earth? What are you doing? Oh no… oh no. Don’t worry. I’m there for you” that part made me CRY and you **cut it.**

[thefrub]

Randall is a multi-talented guy, I've been a fan of the comic for years and never knew that he could narrate videos too. You should have done this years ago!

[moocowpong]

I like the thought of the moon acting as a battery for storing angular momentum, just in case we ever stop spinning for some reason

[BigBaddaBoom]

As a teen, I wanted to write a post apocalyptic book about this. I wanted parts of it to be written in odd styling, like reading from an old book. And I carried the starting line with me for years.
In the seventh year of the war, when the sky fell upon the Earth with unimaginable terror, all things built above the land were torn asunder, and all things dug below the ground were left for plunder.

[classifiedveteran]

You've forgotten the absence of the centripetal effects on the Earth. *The entire planet's tectonic surface would be destroyed.*
I've noticed that a lot of people overlook the equatorial bulge collapsing whenever answering this question. The earth is 27 miles _(43 kilometers)_ wider in radius due to its rotation. If it stopped spinning the tectonic plates and magma would fall.
I haven't done the math, but I strongly suspect that the equator would generate massive circular waves heading for each of the poles. The waves would _"condense"_ and get bigger as they headed toward the poles, hense getting bigger. This would result in the tectonic plates shattering and exploding along the way. If I recall correctly the tectonic plates are only 50 miles k_80 kilometers)_ thick in certain areas. These waves would collide with themselves at the polls creating massive explosions launching debris into space. The Earth's surface would likely be remolten into magma Earth.

[lenathefirst_]

I remember reading this when I was younger in What If 1 and having a massive existential crisis. Good times thanks to Andrew

[MrToberton]

🤔 What if a Dinosaur 🦕 wiped out the Asteroids

[prdoyle]

Didn't mention the oceans rushing toward the poles due to lack of centrifugal force, or the immense earthquakes resulting from the equator suddenly finding itself 21km "higher" than the poles.

[AlexTiktinsky]

"Well first, nearly everyone would die. Then things would get interesting" - Literally every single What If? or Kurzgesagt video

[connycontainer]

Just finish your homework Andrew, it's not worth it.

[Gorvinhagen]

The narration for these videos is top tier.

Eloquent, relaxed, and natural. No insanely compressed and bass-boosted voice, which (at least to me) seems insanely common these days. It's the little things, man.