How would the earth behave differently if we didnt have a moon?

Answer 1

The most obvious effect would be no tides.

The Earth would also rotate faster. When two objects orbit their combined center of mass (which happens to lie very near the center of Earth in the Earth/Moon case), the two eventually synchronize their orbit and rotation so the same side of each are always exposed to each other. You have to have overall conservation of angular momentum, so this changes the orbit and rotation rate of each. The Moon, having less mass, has already synchronized it's rotation rate so we always see the same side of the Moon. The Earth still rotates too fast, but that rotation rate is constantly slowing.

The constantly slowing rotation rate also has another effect. It causes the continental plates to drift. The Earth has more mass near the equator than the poles because of the Earth's spin. The constant slowing in the Earth's rotation means there is too much mass near the Equator. The mass has to redistribute itself to match the rotation rate of the Earth and that redistribution happens much slower than the Earth's change in rotation. The shifts in continental plates causes earthquakes and volcanoes.

Answer 2

If we didn't have the moon you would not be here to ask the question. Life may have evolved in the oceans with out the moon but I don't think that it would have gained a foothold on land. Tidal zones are where life gained the chance to conquer the land. First plant life and then animal life found a niche in this bridge. If we did exist with out the moon life would be very different as many organisms have evolved with the lunar cycle. The most obvious is a woman's menstrual cycle, but if you look you will see many examples(Ants in Ireland always swarm on the August full moon). It also looks pretty.

Answer 3

Much less tide, and possibly no life. The intense stirring of the ocean by huge tides early in the earth's history (when the moon was much closer to earth than it is now) may have had something to do with the creation of the first life.

Answer 4

I cannot answer your question directly, but if the Moon suddenly moved away from Earth now, it would be the end of not only all life on Earth, but it would be the end of Earth herself. You see, if the Moon did indeed move away from us, the resulting gravitational forces would tear our planet apart, causing in the complete destruction of Earth. Sorry for the bad news, but lets just hope and pray the Moon stays where it is forever, otherwise, it will be the end of Earth !

Answer 5

The Earth would probably flip its polar angle as the moons gravitational affect keeps the Earths polarity more stable. This effect has already occured on Neptune.

Answer 6

As well as causing higher tides than we'd get with just the sun, the moon stabilises the earth's axial tilt. If we didn't have the moon we'd have much more frequent and larger climate changes.

Answer 7

THERE WOULD BE NO LIFE! This is becasue the moon was created be the young (mostly liquid) earth was smashed into by a large comet and this became the core of eath today, (also broke the earth and the debris from this smash became the moon) the new core which is made of iron creates our magnetic poles which protect us from the radiation from the sun, otherwise we would be another mars.

Answer 8

Much smaller tides and the rotational axis would be much less stable; also the Earth's rotation would be faster, about 10 hour days. Also no solar eclipses!

Answer 9

There would be no tides, which would mean the North Atlantic drift would slow down, and we'd probably be under 5 metres of ice.

Answer 10

Can only think that there would be no tides and it could then have a knock on effect with the weather patterns.