Tidal Slowdown, Coral Growth, and the Age of the Earth T he earth is slowing down. It is not rotating as fast today as it was in the past. This slowdown is caused by the tides which the moon raises on the earth. However, before we explain this slowdown, we need to discuss how tides are formed.
All physical objects attract one another through the force of gravity.
This force depends upon the mass of each object and upon the distance between the objects. The closer they are to each other, the more strongly they attract. In the case of the moon and the earth, the moon pulls the ocean water on the nearer side of the earth more strongly than it pulls the rest of the earth, so the water forms a bulge. The opposite occurs on the far side of the earth. Here the water experiences the least pull because it is farthest from the moon.