If the Earth When global rotation stops, the massive oceanic water migration would cease and sea level would be at different locations, completely changing world geography. The world as we know it. The obvious demarcation of land and ocean is indicated by the contour of 0 elevation. 62 ArcUser Summer 2010 The longer, equatorial axis of Earth’s ellipsoid is more than 21.4 km (or 1/3 of 1 percent) longer than the polar axis. The flattening of the ellipsoid shown on this map was intentionally exaggerated. www.esri.com