Billions of years ago the average Earth day lasted less than 13 hours and it is continuing to lengthen. The reason lies in our relationship to the Moon.
With each passing year the Moon gets further away from the Earth and the average day length gets a tiny bit longer
, meaning friction from the ocean basins moving beneath also acts to drag the water along with it. This means the, which attempts to pull it backwards. This slowly saps our planet's rotational energy, slowing its spin while the Moon gains energy, causing it to move into a higher orbit. The Moon currently sits 384,400km from us on Earth. But one recent study suggests that around 3.2 billion years ago – just as the
"If the North Atlantic was slightly wider or narrower, this wouldn't happen," says Waltham. "The models seem to show that if you go back a few million years, the tidal strength drops right off because the continents were in different positions."
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