What would happen if the moon were twice as close to Earth?

||| FROM SPACE.COM

In the 2003 Jim Carrey movie “Bruce Almighty,” Carrey’s character suddenly acquires God-like powers, and uses those powers to lasso the full moon and pull it closer to Earth to woo his beloved. Later in the movie, background shots show TV news reports about massive, unprecedented flooding around the world.

While the film is obviously fantastical, it does raise a question: What would happen if the moon were twice as close to Earth than it is today?

In fact, the flooding scenario from the movie isn’t far from what might actually happen if the moon were suddenly much closer to Earth, said Neil Comins, a physicist at the University of Maine. The best-known effect of the moon is its gravitational pull on Earth’s oceans, which results in two high tides and two low tides every day. 

But if the moon were half the distance from Earth as it is now, the tides would be eight times higher, Comins told Live Science. Some islands would be completely underwater for much of the day, and populated coastlines would likely become uninhabitable because of the high tides, he added. 

Related: If you’re on the moon, does Earth appear to go through phases?

But higher ocean tides wouldn’t be the only result of a closer moon. The moon also has a tidal effect on Earth’s land, Comins said.

If the moon were suddenly twice as close to Earth, the effect would be like hitting a gong with a mallet, Comins said: Waves of energy would reverberate through the planet due to the sudden increased strength of the moon’s gravitational pull. 

And that sudden whack of gravity “would actually impact the Earth’s crust, which means it might trigger more earthquakes, might trigger more volcanic eruptions,” said Jazmin Scarlett, a historical and social volcanologist at the Queen Mary University of London.

Take, for example,  Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active world in the solar system, Scarlett said. Io’s volcanism results from the push and pull from the gravity of Jupiter and two of its other moons. Earth might see a similar fate if the moon were suddenly half as close.

Along with all the sudden buckling of the planet’s crust, Earth’s spin would slow over time. This is because, as the moon’s gravity pulls the oceans, the resulting friction between the ocean floor and water slows Earth’s spin. Today, Earth’s rotation is slowing by about one-thousandth of a second per century, Comins said. If the moon were half the distance away, Earth’s rotation would slow even more, dragging out our days and nights. 

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