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The Earth gets squeezed
Walls of water
In months four and five the tides climb from about 30 meters toward 100. At low tide the ocean pulls back hundreds of kilometers, exposing the continental shelf like a vast desert, and at high tide walls of water drown farms, houses, and skyscrapers.
The planet flexes
Until now the oceans have absorbed most of the Moon's gravitational squeezing by flowing. Now the planet itself flexes. The squeeze, combined with the weight of enormous amounts of water sloshing on and off the tectonic plates, creates stresses below ground that set off earthquakes of growing magnitude. Where they strike and how severe they get cannot be predicted. The squeeze also disrupts the magma reservoirs inside the crust and triggers large, climate-altering eruptions in Chile, New Zealand, Yellowstone, and elsewhere.
Reversal and cooling
From months eight to eleven the tides slow down and then reverse direction, because the Moon now orbits Earth faster than Earth rotates. Volcanic aerosols rise high into the stratosphere and reflect sunlight back into space. The light that gets through is rust red and is dimmed by daily eclipses. Rapid global cooling brings acid rain and summer snow that kill even the hardiest plants, and billions have perished.
How can tides set off earthquakes?
Tidal stress adds a small push on faults that are already close to slipping. Researchers led by Satoshi Ide at the University of Tokyo reported in a 2016 study in Nature Geoscience that the largest earthquakes were more likely to begin near times of peak tidal stress. The tidal push is tiny next to the stress built up over centuries, so it matters only on faults ready to break. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan is among the large quakes that fit this pattern.
How do volcanic aerosols cool the planet?
Large eruptions inject sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, where it turns into tiny sulfuric acid droplets. The droplets reflect some incoming sunlight back to space, and with no rain up there to wash them out, they linger for a year or two. After Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, global average temperature dropped by about half a degree Celsius, according to NASA and USGS analyses. That cooling lasted roughly two years.
Has a volcano ever caused summer snow?
The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in April 1815 was the largest in recorded history. The following year, 1816, became known as the Year Without a Summer. Frosts and snow struck New England in June, and harvests failed across much of Europe. Grain prices soared, and famine and food riots followed in several countries.
Why would the Moon rise in the west?
A moon that orbits faster than its planet rotates overtakes the planet's surface, so it travels across the sky in the opposite direction to the Sun and the stars. The tidal bulge follows the Moon, so the direction of the tides reverses with it. Mars's moon Phobos shows this in practice: it circles Mars in about 7.7 hours, while a Martian day lasts about 24.6 hours. From the surface of Mars, Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east more than twice a day.
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