Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
Because, remember the tides are accelerating the moon's orbit - eventually, the moon will reach escape velocity and fly away ... I think that having more liquid water will make this happen more quickly - but that is only a guess.
|
Sorry I know this isn't like the point of the thread, but I have to step in here on this.
Tides are slowing earth's rotation down (making the day longer) and speeding the moon up, but the moon won't be sent to escape velocity. Long before that could ever happen the process will end with the earth and the moon tidally locked to eachother so that one day on earth takes the same amount of time as it does for the moon to orbit the earth. This way one side of the moon will face the earth. Right now it is estimated that this process will take billions of years.
Melting Antarctica, while bad for many reasons, isn't going to have much of an impact on the moon's rotation of the earth.