What would happen if the moon was destroyed?

Question

I dunno, asteroid or something. Would it effect our rotation or time in a day?

Answer 1

You wouldn't be around to worry about the Earth's rotation. The moon contains over ten million times as much material as it took to wipe out the dinosaurs. If even one percent of the debris hit Earth, it would be a thousand times as much as needed to wipe out all life.

Answer 2

The Earth depends on the moon for its gravitational counter balance. It also is the reason why we have tides on Earth. If the moon were destroyed, the Earth as we know it would go into complete and total chaos. The Earth spins on it's own axis, as does the moon. However, they both spin in opposite directions, This counter spin of the moon actually pulls on the Earth keeping up a perfect balance for our eco system to survive on. No moon, no life on Earth. There would be earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that would create a dust cloud so thick it would blot out the suns light killing everything on the planet and plunging us into an ice age. By the way...the moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of about an inch per year.

Answer 3

We'd still have tidal waves, which are not caused by the tides but by earthquakes. We would likely have fewer earthquakes as the moon's gravitational pull creates stresses on the earth's crust that can create fractures.

We would also still have tides through the influence of the sun. The sun has about half the tidal influence of the moon. The tides would come at the same time of day in a particular location and would vary in magnitude with the changing of the seasons.

The precession of the equinoxes, caused by the moon pulling asymetrically on the earth's equatorial bulge, would slow tremendously. Over time the equatorial bulge would align with the plane of the earth's orbit and when it did, the seasons would stop.

Answer 4

The moon affects the tides and helps to counter balance our rotation. If it was destroyed, the tidal system would stop and our orbit would be a bit wobbly for a time until gravitational forces settled things out.

Remember, nature likes a balance. Get things out of balance, and something will change to rebalance the system.

Answer 5

besides the aforementioned axis counter balance being gone = our Eco system being destroyed

Any thing big enough to destroy the moon into nothingness would prolly be big enough to mess up our atmosphere in such a way where we would not live long

Answer 6

Eventually the earth's axis would start to wobble (big time) and we would go through periods with the nothern or southern hemisphere pointing toward the sun.

Answer 7

All the lunatics would be let out of the loony bins.[cured]!

Answer 8

the earth would then resemble mars

Answer 9

No more tidal waves. How sad. Also, no more cheese.

Answer 10

we would have a dark night i mean dark!