so if a meteror the size of an average house

PHiuR

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
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this is the size of the rock when it HITS the ground.

how much damage will it do?

discuss.
 

Sphexi

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2005
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Go look at south-east Russia. There's a big hole in the ground created by a similar meteor some hundreds/thousands of years ago (I can't remember when exactly).
 

91TTZ

Lifer
Jan 31, 2005
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Depends on how fast it's going and how hard the rock is. Is it an icy rock, a dirty rock, or is it a metallic rock?
 

PHiuR

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
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Originally posted by: 91TTZ
Depends on how fast it's going and how hard the rock is. Is it an icy rock, a dirty rock, or is it a metallic rock?

umm...i'm not sure..avg speed?, any whatever rock that is most likely to enter our atmosphere.
 

thelanx

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Jul 3, 2000
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Probably equivalent to quite a few hydrogen bombs, without the radiation of course. Huge huge devastation though. You'd have a blast radius of like 200 miles or something. (I'm pulling all of these numbers out of my ass)
 

Sphexi

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Feb 22, 2005
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http://www.astrojet.org/earths_impact_craters.htm

I was off on the timeframe, the one I was thinking of was in 1908 and wasn't an actual strike, it just exploded 8km off the surface of the Earth, causing like 2500 square km of damage. The actual impact was like 30mil years ago, but did do a bit of damage, like 62 miles in diameter worth.
 

Sphexi

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Feb 22, 2005
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Originally posted by: Mo0o
Would it be big enough to cause nuclear winter?

Probably not. A meteor the size of a house would cause a lot of problems for that part of the world, very much like a large-scale volcanic eruption. But to cause a full nuclear winter or something else it'd take a meteor almost 4-5km in diameter, like the one that hit Chesapeake bay, or the one that hit up in Quebec.
 

Mo0o

Lifer
Jul 31, 2001
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Originally posted by: Lonyo
Originally posted by: Mo0o
Would it be big enough to cause nuclear winter?

Yes, because the radiation would be nasty.

I thought nuclear winter had less to do with the radiation as much as the debris that will be launched into the atmosphere and thus blocking the sun.
 

Hammerhead

Platinum Member
Jul 26, 2001
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Originally posted by: PHiuR
this is the size of the rock when it HITS the ground.

how much damage will it do?

discuss.

If the news reported that it was made of crack, all the crackheads would congregate at its landing spot. Landing on crackheads woul soften its impact on the earth's surface...ergo...no damage.

 

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
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Originally posted by: Mo0o
Originally posted by: Lonyo
Originally posted by: Mo0o
Would it be big enough to cause nuclear winter?

Yes, because the radiation would be nasty.

I thought nuclear winter had less to do with the radiation as much as the debris that will be launched into the atmosphere and thus blocking the sun.

I was joking.
A house isn't very big.

Link
They say 10km would do it.
 

cKGunslinger

Lifer
Nov 29, 1999
16,408
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I've always wondered what would happen if an asteroid the size of Texas was coming right for earth. Maybe would could drill it or blow it up with a nuke or something?
 

Kindjal

Senior member
Mar 30, 2001
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Maybe we could dig a hole throught the Earth at the point of impact and let it pass straight through. :confused:
 

NeoV

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
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house-sized rock would make a nice crater, but wouldn't really have any global implications

the "tunguska" event in 1908 was likely a comet, not an asteroid, that exploded in the atmoshphere and didn't actually hit the ground - however, if that event repeated itself today over a populated area, bad place to be for a while

A nuclear winter has nothing to do with radiation...

An object the size of Texas would likely be detected months in advance, but I don't know for sure that we have the technology to do much about it....I'd imagine there would be a series of missile/rocket launches at at, likely nuclear in nature.....

I think they would find a crack team of the best oil-rig drillers in the world, make 2 custom space shuttles, and send in the boys to land on the object, plant a bomb, and get the heck out of there.....