From link: www.astronomynotes.com...
Tides Slow Earth Rotation
As the Earth rotates beneath the tidal bulges, it attempts to drag the bulges along with it. A large amount of friction is produced which slows down the Earth's spin. The day has been getting longer and longer by about 0.0016 seconds each century.
Over the course of time this friction can have a noticeable effect. Astronomers trying to compare ancient solar eclipse records with their predictions found that they were off by a significant amount. But when they took the slowing down of the Earth's rotation into account, their predictions agreed with the solar eclipse records. Also, growth rings in ancient corals about 400 hundred million years old show that the day was only 22 hours long so that there were over 400 days in a year. In July 1996 a research study reported evidence, from several sedimentary rock records providing an indicator of tidal periods, that the day was only 18 hours long 900 million years ago.
Eventually the Earth's rotation will slow down to where it keeps only one face toward the Moon. Gravity acts both ways so the Earth has been creating tidal bulges on the Moon and has slowed it's rotation down so much that it rotates once every orbital period. The Moon keeps one face always toward the Earth.
Here is a list of references about the evidence for the slowing down of the Earth's rotation:
1. Growth Rhythms and the History of the Earth's rotation, edited by G.D. Rosenberg and S.K. Runcorn (Wiley: New York, 1975). An excellent source on the eclipse records and the biology of coral and their use as chronometers.
2. Tidal Friction and the Earth's Rotation, edited by P. Brosche and J. Sündermann (Springer Verlag, 1978). The second volume put out in 1982 does not talk about eclipse records or the use of coral but, instead, goes into the astrophysics of the Earth-Moon dynamics and geophysics of internal Earth processes effects on the Earth's rotation.
3. Earth's Rotation from Eons to Days, edited by P. Brosche and J. Sündermann (Springer Verlag, 1990). Has several articles about the use of ancient Chinese observations.
4. Richard Monastersky 1994, Ancient tidal fossils unlock lunar secrets in Science News vol. 146, no. 11, p. 165 of the 10 Sept 1994 issue.
5. C. P. Sonett, E. P. Kvale, A. Zakharian, Marjorie A. Chan, T. M. Demko 1996, Late Proterozoic and Paleozoic Tides, Retreat of the Moon, and Rotation of the Earth in Science vol 273, no. 5271, p. 100 of the 05 July 1996 issue.
NOW – what kind of Effects can happen from a solar eclipse? – Let’s look
Below From link: www.eclipse2006.boun.edu.tr...
X. S. Yang†
Faculty of Engineering, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom
~Received 30 July 2002; published 27 January 2003!
Gravitational and other anomalies seen repeatedly in connection with solar eclipses have led to speculation about a possible gravitational shielding effect as the cause. Here we show that an unusual phenomenon that occurs only during solar eclipses, rapid air mass movement for the bulk of the atmosphere above normal cloud levels,appears to be a sufficient explanation for both the magnitude and behavior of the anomaly previously reported in these pages.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.67.022002
A very accurate Foucault-type pendulum slightly increases its period of oscillation and/or changes its plane of swing ~by up to 13.5o) at sites experiencing a partial eclipse of the Sun, as compared with any other time. This effect was first noticed by Allais over 40 years ago @1#, and both it and related phenomena are now named after him. Some such effect has been seen at several eclipses since then, but also not seen at other eclipses. In recent years, an anomalous
eclipse effect on gravimeters has become well-established even under controlled environmental conditions ~especially pressure!
Why does an eclipse affect the atmosphere? I am shortening the explanation in the link provided above – because it gets VERY technical – with all kinds of physics explanations.
we see that air mass flow during eclipses might have the right qualitative behavior to explain
the observed Allais gravity anomaly because it occurs mainly near the periphery of the eclipse zone and is in the right direction. The following question now arises: Can an excess air mass of order 1.8% during eclipses be enough to produce a gravitational force of the observed agnitude? Simple reasoning suggests that the cooler air inside the eclipse zone will decrease in volume ~increasing in density! in accord with Boyle’s law as its temperature drops, creating
a ‘‘low’’ pressure region with the unusual character that it would extend to great altitudes. This leaves room for warmer air from outside the eclipse zone on all sides of the advancing
shadow of the Moon to flow rapidly into the eclipse zone and fill the volume emptied by the cooler, denser air there.
This is what happens on a smaller scale across meteorological fronts. When ‘‘highs’’ and ‘‘lows’’ collide, winds are created that attempt to equalize those discordant pressures. Note
that for eclipses, the redistribution of air mass would affect broad areas well outside the eclipse zone through this process because those areas are the reservoir from which the
extra air mass would be drawn. If the shadow were static or slowly moving, air would
flow deep into the eclipse zone until pressures equalized again for the higher density of air mass present. The greatest density would be found in the center of the shadow where
the eclipse is total. However, reality is far from a static situation. The speed of sound is 330 m/s at sea level, and normally changes little with altitude. But the speed of the Moon relative to the Earth averages close to 1000 m/s. The shadow moves at the same speed as the Moon when projected perpendicular to the surface, or faster when projected obliquely. The result is that warmer air from outside the eclipse zone is continually trying to rush toward the cooler regions just inside the shadow, increasing the total mass of air over the ground below. But that air never gets a chance to penetrate very deeply before the shadow has rushed onward, carrying the high-altitude ‘‘front’’ with it faster than air can travel. Hence, the ground barometric pressure is seen to rise during the eclipse, but the amount will be a complex function of the eclipse geometry. Of course, the shadow cools a much larger volume of air than can be above the observer’s horizon. So the production of gravity anomalies at the observer will be dependent on what the upper atmosphere is doing locally as the shadow approaches, covers, and recedes.
There is a great chart on the site showing the gravity acceleration during a solar eclipse – try as I did – I was not able to snap shot it here.
There is LOTS more – very complex information from the site, but the long and short of it is the whole Earth is Actually affected by a Solar Eclipse. With this being the longest eclipse of the 21st century – we could possibly see some very Strong affects from it.
Now – we have seen where it will be and a solar eclipse DOES affect the Whole Earth.
[edit on 19-7-2009 by questioningall]
Yes, there have been connections before with solar
eclipses and Earthquakes – that is just part of history. Which is being laid out along with many other aspects of a Solar Eclipse. 
