ELI5. What would happen to tides on Earth if the moon disappeared?

r/

ELI5. What would happen to tides on Earth if the moon disappeared?

Comments

  1. Lirdon Avatar

    Since it’s the mass of the moon that contributes most to the tides, they will become rather weaker, with tides being created by the sun gravity instead.

  2. StupidLemonEater Avatar

    There would still be solar tides. They less than half the strength of lunar tides, and high tide would always be at local noon and low tide would always be at midnight.

  3. Ridley_Himself Avatar

    The tides would get smaller, and we would no longer see the monthly cycle of spring and neap tides.

    The moon is the primary cause of tides on Earth, but the sun exerts a tidal force on Earth as well, about half of what the moon does. Because we have two sources of tidal force, the range between high tide and low tide varies. During a full moon and new moon, the lunar and solar tides add to each other, so high tides are higher and low tides are lower. This is called a spring tide. During a half moon, the solar tide partially cancels out the lunar tide, so there is less difference between high and low tide. This is called a neap tide.

  4. Morall_tach Avatar

    The tides would be entirely controlled by the sun, and they’d be weaker and more consistent over the course of the year. Sometimes the moon and sun fight each other and sometimes they work together, which wouldn’t be the case anymore.

  5. Skitterin Avatar

    Tides would be governed by the suns influence instead.

    I would be more concerned about the axial tilt becoming more extreme without the moon to stabilize it.

  6. daledge97 Avatar

    The rest of the answers have summed it up but interestingly, because gravity “travels” at the speed of light, nothing would happen for about a second until it reached us

  7. Mammoth-Mud-9609 Avatar

    The tides would virtually stop other than some minor ones caused by the position of the Sun, but these would be tiny compared to current tides. https://youtu.be/fHO9J2LlXYw

  8. fogobum Avatar

    Long term the tides would become weaker, destroying establishe beach ecosystems around the world. They would likely recover eventually.

    Short term the massive waves raise by the moon would collapse, likely causing worldwide tsunamis of modest, albeit dangerous, size. Worse if the moon is full or new, best if the moon is either quarter.

  9. libra00 Avatar

    They would mostly go away. The sun does have some effect on the tides as well (see: neap tide), but it’s pretty small.

  10. troycalm Avatar

    The oceans would turn into a cesspool of dead life,leading to its demise.