What about the rotation of the earth on its axis? Is it constant over the (millions of) years, or is there an evolution noticeable, an acceleration or deceleration?

Asker: Luc , 47 years

Answer

The tidal forces in the Moon-Earth system slow the rotation of Earth around its axis. But this is happening extremely slowly, at a rate of about 15 seconds per million years. So hardly noticeable.
But on the Earth time scale, it does matter. About a billion years ago, a day lasted less than 20 hours. About 2.5 billion years ago, at the end of the Archaic era, a day lasted about 13 hours. And about 4.5 billion years ago, just when the Moon was formed from a gigantic collision of a protoplanet with the Earth, a day lasted just 5 hours.

What about the rotation of the earth on its axis?  Is it constant over the (millions of) years, or is there an evolution noticeable, an acceleration or deceleration?

Answered by

Prof. Manuel Sintubin

Tectonics Geodynamics Earthquake Geology Earthquake Archaeology

Catholic University of Leuven
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/

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