Earthed

How would a part of the earth ripping apart impact the rest of it?

I was reading an article about an asteriod impacting the earth and destroy the dinosaurs and I was curious about the opposite scenario. What would happen if somehow part of the earth was ripped from the rest of it and sent hurling into space? They say the moon was made by spinning free from the earth early in the creation of the universe. I am just wondering what kind of effect such an act would have nowadays on the environment.

Public Comments

1. Depending of what size of "part" you are talking, I guess there better not be such an event.
   
   It would affect the planet's inertia in its movements (spinning and orbital rotation around the Sun).
   
   If the part is really big, it might also affect gravity on Earth...
   
   This would disbalance the forces keeping the planet at a ± constant distance from the Sun; it might be thrown away or captured by the Sun, depending if the impact slowed the planet's run or accelerated it...
   
   There might very well be other effects, it depends on how the part is ripped apart, the angle/speed/strength of impact and what is the size of the part ripped out.
   
   
   
   That would be a nice mess anyway! Better not happen.
   
   
   
   MJ
2. This is such a complicated question that can have so many scenarios.
   
   
   
   But here you go. Lets say it took out something as small as Panama. What Panama does is deflect warm tropical oceanic currents to the north and south. When they get to the poles, they are a major contributor of the cool temperatures and help build Ice caps. If it was gone, the salinity of the oceans would change, as would the currents and the gulf stream in the atmosphere, and the earth would have, in essence, one giant warm ocean. This would result in severe warming of the atmosphere.
   
   Ice caps would be harder to build, and there wouldn't be enough to reflect the suns rays, thereby warming the poles.