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Odd questions . . .

Phil

Master Satyr
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Jun 5, 2003
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This is going to sound a little unusual, and I won't go into why I want to know these things, but if anyone can offer some solid information it would really help me out. Even "educated speculation" would help.

I'm wondering what effects would be experienced if a solid mass, say the about density of lead, about the square mileage of Australia, and about the thickness of the Earth's atmosphere suddenly materialized say in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. This thing would be growing as well, like a tumor.

How would it affect the Earth's gravity? Rotation? Atmosphere? Tectonic shift? Etc.
What would happen to the tides?
What would happen to the Moon?
What would happen?
 
Phil said:
I'm wondering what effects would be experienced if a solid mass, say the about density of lead, about the square mileage of Australia, and about the thickness of the Earth's atmosphere suddenly materialized say in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.
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You mean like Charlotte Church?
 
Well, I'm waiting for code to run... so a quick back of the envelope calculation reveals the following:

Assuming surface area of Australia and depth of 100km, the mass would be ~10^22 kg, or about one thousandth that of the entire Earth. Since the ocean is, on average ~4km deep and the atmosphere is ~100km the block would displace about 4*10^20 kg of water, or ~4*10^17 cubic meters. This is about a quarter of the total volume of all the oceans, so the sea levels would rise by about 25%, or 1km! If this is going to happen, let me know. I should probably move.

If this thing really materialized instantly, the resulting mass increase would decrease the angular velocity of the Earth by about 0.1% (due to conservation of angular momentum). The day would therefore get 90 seconds longer.

The slight increase in mass of the Earth wouldn't change the tides or the moon's orbit by much, although over some period of many years the Moon's orbit would probably change in period. We might see some wobble in the Earth's precession due to the now asymmetrical mass distributions though. It also wouldn't surprise me if many satellites suddenly had orbits that decayed much quicker than they otherwise would have.

The price of lead would go down.

Edit: Oops, I meant longer. Thanks Jon.
 
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I'm no scientist or engineer, but wouldn't the day get longer? Wouldn't that much mass materializing all at once slow down the rotation of the earth?
 
I warned you, I warned you all. I told you that one day Phil would try to take over the world. First, it was his pub, and now this. And you didn't listen to me. You didn't listen.
 
roger said:
I warned you, I warned you all. I told you that one day Phil would try to take over the world. First, it was his pub, and now this. And you didn't listen to me. You didn't listen.
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Don't worry, roger. When I take over the world it will be fun fun place to live.


Thanks for the input Fluffer. This is exactly the type of information I'm looking for.
 
There is also one other result.

I'm pretty sure a lot of ocean dwelling things would not enjoy the new element.

Further, Lex Luther would have a massive place to hide inside or under without detection.
 
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