In a message dated 1/20/98 12:47:47 AM, forrestb@ix.netcom.com wrote:
> The hypothesis I heard a long time ago had to do with the tidal effects
>on estuaries/ coastlines. It may have had more to do with creatures
>leaving the sea than with single-cell life.
Yes, I've heard this one too, and the article I read in no way
denied it.
>I'm not so sure about the axis-stabilization theory, that the Moon
>is necessary. I suppose it would provide some stability by creating
>a tidal bulge, which produces an oblate spheroid rotating about its
>smallest principle axis (a minimum energy configuration).
>But where is the perturbation for a 90 degree knock down of a moonless
>Earth?
Gravitational interactions with other planets, mostly Jupiter.
The article didn't explain how, and I don't understand such
subtleties of rotational mechanics. I will point out the the
earth's axis of rotational does wobble, as it is, so something
is enough to push that axis around.
Received on Wed Jan 21 02:03:49 1998
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