Effects of a decreased rotation veloctiy

[blimkie.k]

As you may know already the Earth's rotation about its orbit is slowing down and the moon is moving farther away from the earth. I believe the figure is about 4cm a year (dont qoute me on this) and it is estimated that in about 3 billion years the the Earth's rotation will have slowed to the point where the moon will be over the same spot of the Earth as it roates the earth. In other words a geostationary orbit. When this this happens it will take the Earth days to make one revolution.

My question is once the Earth begins to slow down and approach this rate will decresed roational velocity cause the Earth to warm by heating up regions for longer periods in a day or cause it to cool and possibly enter an ice age by having regions in the dark for so long. Or will it just somehwat even out and only have moderate effects on climate.

-BlimkiE

 

[Chronos]

It will take many billions of years for Earth to become tidally locked with the sun. The sun will be a white dwarf by then, and may already have toasted planet Earth during its red giant phase.

 

[D H]

My question is once the Earth begins to slow down ...

The Earth began to slow down a long time ago. The day is estimated to have been only 6 hours long when the Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. The day was 21.9 hours long 620 million years ago, and the evidence for this is in fossil records. The change is very, very slow. The day will remain about 24 hours long for a long, long time in human terms. We, and all life on Earth, will be long gone by the time the Earth becomes tidally locked with the Moon.