Posted on 06/02/2004 8:23:38 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
Interesting idea.
BFL!
Here, here!
I wish the good 'Doctor' were on this site.
I'd like to ask him what he intends on doing come
June 23rd after NOTHING has happened; After JULY 23rd after NOTHING has happened. What's he gonna do then, blow his brains out? Nothing he EVER says again will have any credibility whatsoever.
He'll have gone from world famous scientist to bag-boy at the local supermarket where he can spew his Sci-fi
horror theories to the retirees as he loads up their groceries for them.
. . . took me a sec.
LoL!
OHMYGOSH!!!!WHATWAS THAT!!!!!!WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!
false alarm....somebody was only flushing.
Red
I'm not saying this is real. Thought others would like to hear it. Snowball sounds like a digitized voice.
Startled New Jersey residents tied-up the phone lines late this evening calling authorities to report a large orange fireball that passed over the town and apparently hit the ground several miles west of Grover´s MIll. . . . .
"I thought a jet was coming down right in the street," said Betty Ocker, a housewife in Grover´s Mill, "it was loud, and I mean really loud."
Police have asked residents to clear up the telephone lines and use them only for emergency purposes until things get worked out, said a town spokesperson. Apparently the local districts received so many calls after the meteor passed overhead that the lines jammed and they have been unable to handle normal calls for police assistance.
Local fire teams were dispatched to the woods west of town to make sure that no fires were started by the space rock, but none of them have reported finding anything as yet.
Grover´s Mill? LOL. You gotta be kidding. Grover´s Mill was the site radomly chosen for the first Martian landings by the 1938 Orson Welles broadcast of "War of the Worlds."
Ping to myself for light reading later tonight.
This isn't just a 'bigger nuclear strike'. Personally, I'd just as soon take my chances on a bald hilltop on very high ground, rather than deal with the massive ground shock wave that's ring the Earth like a bell and possibly collapse even reinforced subterranean structures.
Probably because of the firestorms. Read below:
Dino-killing asteroid sparked global fires, scientists believe
By Richard Stenger
CNN
(CNN) --A giant space rock that hit the Earth eons ago scattered high-velocity rubble over the planet, setting off wildfires that quickly spread over much of the equatorial region, North America and the Indian subcontinent, scientists announced this week.
The instant inferno, thought to have hastened the end of the dinosaurs, could have spared Europe, northern Asia, Antarctica and much of Australia, according to David Kring of the University of Arizona and Daniel Durda of the Southwest Research Institute.
The duo, who speculated that the mega-blazes needed only several days to spread around the world, said the horrific scenario followed the impact of a big space boulder in Chicxulub, Mexico.
"The fires were generated after debris ejected from the crater was lofted far above the Earth's atmosphere and rained back down over a period of about four days," Kring said.
"Like countless trillions of meteors, the debris heated the atmosphere and surface temperatures so intensely that ground vegetation spontaneously ignited."
An immense impact crater lies beneath the site in the Yucatan Peninsula. The blast, which took place 65 million years ago, heralded the end of the Cretaceous Period.
More than three-quarters of the plant and animal species on the planet did not survive the transition to the Tertiary Period, when mammals replaced dinosaurs as the dominant species.
The collision unleashed an estimated 10 billion times more energy than did the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, the scientists said.
Some debris concentrated around the impact site and more drifted westward over the spinning Earth and concentrated on the opposite side around India, the researchers said.
"The material was launched around Earth," Kring said. "Then, because the Earth rotates, it turned beneath [the] plume of debris and the fires migrated westward. That's what caused the wildfire pattern."
The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, elaborates on rudimentary climate wildfire models developed by University of Arizona planetary scientist Jay Melosh and others.
"We've added more detail in re-evaluating the extent of the wildfires. Our new calculations show that the fires were not ignited in a single pulse, but in multiple pulses at different times around the world," Kring said.
Planetary scientist Frank Kyte of the University of California, Los Angeles, said the wildfire models make sense.
"It all sounds reasonable. I certainly believe that there were wildfires. I'm revising a paper now that reports significant amounts of soot in KT sediments [which mark the geologic boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary Periods] from the central north Pacific, so fires must have been very widespread."
bttt
Fair point, although I'd think twice about trusting a subterranean shelter, even so.
Okay, assume the shelter held up through the earthquakes, wasn't inundated with seawater, and the fires have run their course. You need air, and food and water and if underground, the energy to support a viable habitat. The requirements for food alone, for the necessary extended period would require a colossal facility. One would probably have to be planned and prepared long before detection of a threatening object.
Which brings up the question: Is there any evidence that such an undertaking is in the works?
Then again, there's no guarantee that such a shelter wouldn't be within the radius of complete destruction. The only way that I can see to assure the survival of the species is with a self-sufficient off-planet colony.
If something like this were to occur between now and the time that such a colony exists, and it were of the magnitude that we're talking about, that's probably all she wrote, folks, unless isolated, hardy survivors manage to eke out a Stone-Age existance someplace. Disasters are often quirky. I'd expect that there's be a few.
Not that I know of. I do remember a story in the Washington Post two years ago about extensive underground blasting under the Naval Observatory in Washington DC. This is where the Vice President's residence is (remember "Get out of Cheney's House!"?). I understood they where making some terrorist proof bunker.
Anyway, it would be a chance either way.
My screen name is from a book title about folks in a small Florida town surviving a full scale nuclear war and what they did to survive, even flourish after a time. I've always liked these kind of stories. However, if there was a extinction level event heading our way in only two weeks (especially 3 of them), we'd know about it by now.
Indeed.
I read such things as well. Jack London wrote a story (in the 20's? Set in the 20's? I could be way off) about such a situation, and my copy of "Earth Abides", which I was required to read in high school several centuries ago, I still have.
I'd think that the Naval Observatory (designed for 'Naval' gazing? LOL!) would be a poor choice for such a shelter. With so much of the Earth's surface covered with oceans, it'd likely be inundated. Even if the shelter had the characteristics of a submarine, there'd still probably be tons and tons of debris on top of it when the water receded. Way too close to the water.
Agree with your point about us knowing by now.
Sandia Labs Comet Strike page
http://www.sandia.gov/media/comethit.htm
Article about LANL research on strike induced Tsunamis
http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/strike.html
You don't want me there. With my luck, the supervolcano under Yellowstone would go up, instead.
Rick,
Matapam on TB asked this question (could not get into freepers due to cookies and asked someone to post this question to you):
"Could you ask him if Itokawa is associated with any meteor activity, such as the Sagittarids, or if he knows a site with detailed info to research that question?"
His question is posted on a private member only area - so I'm not sure how you would answer him/her unless your a member there?
You can private email me and I will forward.
Fascinating info on asteroid / comet strike damage:
http://personals.galaxyinternet.net/tunga/I7.htm
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