Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
The Moon affects the Earth's climate
The most obvious effect can be seen in the ocean tides. The Earth's rotation causes the Moon's gravity to pull the water on the closest side of Earth towards it, creating a bulge. The centrifugal force caused by the Earth's rotation makes the sea bulge on the other side too. These bulges of water are high tides.
Every 18.6 years, there is a lunar nodal cycle, where the lunar plane tilts away from the equatorial plane, causing tides to grow smaller. When the Moon's orbit is more in line with the Earth equator, the tides are bigger.
12
130 reads
Excessive flooding pose a danger
According to Nasa, the rising sea levels combined with the influence of the nodal cycle can increase the number of high tide floods in the 2030s.
These floods could damage infrastructure and change coastlines. In addition, it could be an existential threat to wildlife in coastal ecosystems.
11
72 reads
The Moon play a role in weather systems
Tides influence the movement of ocean currents. Warm ocean currents bring warmer, wetter weather, while cold currents bring colder, drier weather.
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (Enso) may be affected by the lunar nodal cycle too. Usually, strong winds along the equator blow warm surface water westward from South America towards Indonesia. During an El Niño event, these winds are reduced or even reversed and can affect weather worldwide. Usually, wet regions may experience drought, while dry areas may experience rain. A La Niña event will have the opposite effect.
13
61 reads
The Moons effect on ice, land and air
- The Moon affects polar temperatures on a monthly cycle. Satellite measurements have shown that poles are 0.55C warmer during a full Moon.
- The Moon creates tidal currents and waves in the ocean that can either melt or break up sea ice.
- Atmospheric tides cause changes in atmospheric pressure. These changes are linked with higher air temperatures, which means the air molecules can hold more moisture.
11
61 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Karen Burns's ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about scienceandnature with this collection
Basic survival skills
How to prioritize needs in survival situations
How to adapt to extreme situations
Related collections
Similar ideas
4 ideas
1 idea
Active Volcanoes of Our Solar System
geology.com
4 ideas
What If Earth Stopped Spinning?
science.howstuffworks.com
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates