DutchE Posted January 22, 2004 Posted January 22, 2004 the moon did that. DINOSAUR EXTINCTION i've always looked at the moon and wonderd if dinosaurs saw the same view. the world was a very different place, then, and i wonderd if the moon might have looked different. this started me thinking "did the moon ever spin?". so i asked nasa this question. they replied me and said "it did spin and stopped 200 million to 2 billion years ago." so then i thought "the solar system is 6 billion years old, their guess is one third of all time, maybe this isn't a much looked into question. TIDES : everybody knows the tide and the moon are linked but how? the thinking at present is that gravity, from the moon, pulls at the oceans. i think it was newton that said gravity is not acting on a body if it's already falling towards the target body. thats why astronauts are weightless in orbit. i got a tidal predictor and looked at the height of tides, at a time of full moon, on the gm line at midnight. this, according to the gravatational model, should have been high tide. it wasn't. it wasn't even close. the moon was actually above the low tide. to my mind the gravatational model was wrong but this leaves the question of "what does cause tides?" i learnt many, years ago, that the earth and moon move as a dipole. this means as well as the moon falling to earth, the earth is falling towards the moon. but because the moon moves the earth is only deviated a little bit. i have since found out it is called the bari centre. this means the earth goes on a little wander every month. this slight deviation is, what i believe, the cause of tides K TIME: the time of the dinosaurs. they where no fly by nights having arrived on earth and excisted about 160 million years. i was watching a programme on telly about giant carved stones that where moved a long way from where they were dug out. the presenter said "if you are moving that much weight you would use water ways" then i thought these massive dino's must have lived in water (not new thinking but where?). k time, i thought, could have been the calm time the earths history where there where no tides. this would have led to large flat areas at the edge of continents (no tidal erosion) and this area was inhabited by many animals. so there were animal living on land, in sea, up in the air and in shallow water. T TIME: time of the tides the moon stopped spinning or became tidally locked and animals still lived on land, sea and air, but the animals that lived in shallow water disapeard. by all reconing, as 60% of all animals extincted, the shallow water environment was a pretty happening place. willem willemse
Radical Edward Posted January 22, 2004 Posted January 22, 2004 nice thoughs, but there are some problems: The reason the moon is not immediately above the tide, is because there is a lag. the high tide lags a bit behind the pull of the moon (it takes some time for all that water to slosh about) next is the dinosaurs themselves. iirc they became extinct about 65 million years ago (well there were a number of mass extinctions, but lets not worry about those) and this is marked by the KT boundary (Cretacious Tertiary) which contains high levels of iridium, which only comes in large amounts from asteroids and so on.
atinymonkey Posted January 22, 2004 Posted January 22, 2004 I like the idea that a simple change in the water table could devastate life. It’s plausible, but to my mind doesn’t really have any use other than as an abstract concept. Something to bear in mind if we start affecting the sea level in some way, I suppose.
YT2095 Posted January 22, 2004 Posted January 22, 2004 we have, it`s called Global warming, and some shcools of thought consider that it may already be too late, there are already noticable changes in the Gulf stream patterns
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted January 22, 2004 Posted January 22, 2004 You said, did the moon ever spin? It is spinning! Just at a speed where as it orbits it rotates to face us all the time.
Sayonara Posted January 22, 2004 Posted January 22, 2004 He means "at a rate which allowed the face to change from our perspective".
Crash Posted January 23, 2004 Posted January 23, 2004 Is teh tides in anyway slowing down earths spin? shouldnt it? or vice versa...........
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted January 23, 2004 Posted January 23, 2004 The earth's spin is slowing down, days used to be (millions of years) about 20 minutes shorter.
Radical Edward Posted January 23, 2004 Posted January 23, 2004 Crash said in post # :Is teh tides in anyway slowing down earths spin? shouldnt it? or vice versa........... yes, again because of this slight lag the earth is being slowed down, and the moon is slowly receeding into a higher orbit. eventually it will enter a geostationary position (apparently, I forget if this is right or not now) where it will stay until the sun melts us all, or aliens (perhaps even us) move it.
Sayonara Posted January 23, 2004 Posted January 23, 2004 Cap'n Refsmmat said in post # :The earth's spin is slowing down, days used to be (millions of years) about 20 minutes shorter. Longer?
Radical Edward Posted January 23, 2004 Posted January 23, 2004 Sayonara³ said in post # : Longer? shorter, surely.
Sayonara Posted January 23, 2004 Posted January 23, 2004 Argh. Again, I blame the early morning :braindead:
Sayonara Posted January 23, 2004 Posted January 23, 2004 BTW I still want to know what a "meateor" is. Sounds tasty.
JaKiri Posted January 23, 2004 Posted January 23, 2004 Sayonara³ said in post # :BTW I still want to know what a "meateor" is. Sounds tasty. You get them at Bloaty's Pizza Hog
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