Reducing Earth’s Gravity By 1% Would Cause Extinction, Expert Claims

An expert discussed what would happen to Earth if its gravity suddenly drops by just one percent. According to the expert, the slight change in the Earth’s gravity would cause a series of events that would immediately kill off billions of people and eventually trigger an extinction-level event.

The very unfortunate scenario was tackled through a forum on Quora, which is a question-and-answer website. The discussion centered on the changes that humans can expect to experience once the gravity on Earth lessens by just one percent.

According to Dave Consiglio, an Earth science teacher, humans will most likely not feel an immediate and direct effect on their body because weight normally fluctuates throughout the day. This means that even though people will get lighter due to the change in gravity, they will most likely not feel it.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the rest of the Earth. If gravity drops by one percent, Consiglio said the slight change could cause tectonic plates and large continents such as Africa to shift. These underground movements could trigger simultaneous powerful earthquakes and violent volcanic eruptions in different parts of the world.

Consiglio noted that these natural disasters could instantly kill off billions of people.

“Africa is suddenly one percent lighter,” he stated. “And it is not happy about that fact. It will shift. Like, a lot. So will all of the other continents. The earthquakes will kill perhaps 1–2 billion people. All of the buildings on Earth are in serious jeopardy of not being upright when this is over.”

Aside from changes within Earth, Consiglio said that the shift in the planet’s gravity would also affect the relationship with the Sun and the Moon. According to Consiglio, as the planet slightly moves away from these two cosmic objects due to the weaker gravitational pull, drastic environmental changes will occur on Earth. Eventually, these changes would make the planet uninhabitable.

“Finally, we have orbital changes,” he explained. “Since Earth’s gravity is lower, it attracts the Sun and the Moon less strongly. This allows the Moon to move away from the Earth (not terrible) and the Earth to move away from the Sun (terrible). Even a one percent change in our orbital distance from the Sun will make us a much cooler place.”

“We’ll likely all be dead from a poisonous atmosphere brought on by planet-wide fires and widespread volcanoes, but when the dust settles the Earth will get much colder,” he added.