Question: What would happen if the earth stopped spinning?

David Robertson answered on 23 Jun 2016:

Interesting question!
Very dramatic changes to the weather would be one thing. A day would last half a year, so places would get very hot, and then very cold and all the weather patterns would be hugely disrupted. It would probably kill off most life on earth.
However even though the climate changes would be dramatic, I would worry even more about what was able to suddenly stop the earth spinning – it must be a huge and dramatic event, much bigger, and more dangerous, than anything we can imagine.