Slashdot Mirror
Vast Asteroid Crater Found In Timor Sea
An anonymous reader notes the discovery of a 35-million-year-old impact crater in the Timor Sea, northwest of Australia, which helped to usher in a period of significant global cooling. "The new findings, announced today and published in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, suggest that the impact could have contributed towards the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet... The minimum size of the dome, which 'represents elastic rebound doming of the Earth crust triggered by the impact' is 50 km across, but the full size of the crater could be significantly larger, [lead researcher Andrew Glikson] told Australian Geographic. 'It would be possibly 100 km.' From the probable diameter of the crater, Andrew estimates that the asteroid which struck the Timor Sea was between 5 and 10 km in size. This impact coincided with a time of heavy asteroid bombardment globally. Several other craters have been documented from a similar time, including one off the WA coast measuring 120 km in diameter. Another impact structure in Siberia was created by an asteroid 100 km in size."
What's the formula for probability of an occurrence like this? I mean i can do probability in the form of - !6 1,2,3,4,5,6/1,2,3,4,5 i might have gotten that wrong, it's early.
Of all the things I've lost; I miss my mind the most. - Mark Twain
This impact coincided with a time of heavy asteroid bombardment globally.
Obviously these asteroids were released from orbit by bug plasma. Invade Klendathu!
I think not.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
I am officially gone from
Something that large hitting the earth would evaporate most of the oceans and turn a large proportion of the earths surface molten. If it didn't kill off life entirely it would certainly kill off almost all multicellular organisms and reset the evolutionary clock so an impact like that could not have happened in the last 600 million years at least.
"Andrew estimates that the asteroid which struck the Timor Sea was between 5 and 10 km" The crater left was up to 100km in diameter.
Read the article. The crater is 10x the size of the rock.
We're safe now.
It was phrased badly by the idiot author. The crater was 100 km in diameter.
Reading is fundamental....
The minimum size of the dome, which 'represents elastic rebound doming of the Earth crust triggered by the impact' is 50 km across, but the full size of the crater could be significantly larger, [lead researcher Andrew Glikson] told Australian Geographic. 'It would be possibly 100 km.'
Andrew estimates that the asteroid which struck the Timor Sea was between 5 and 10 km in size.
FTFS: "Another impact structure in Siberia was created by an asteroid 100 km in size."
From what I could quickly find, the Popigai Crater in Siberia is 100km in diameter, but that doesn't mean that whatever created it was 100km in size.
This guy's the limit!
I think they are off by an order of magnitude there.
Best Slashdot Co
Reading is fundamental....
Yes, reading IS fundamental. Now go back and reread the last sentence of the summary and tell me what it says.
This guy's the limit!
Here we are on slashdot .. an American site (as I keep being told) and the summary is correctly using metric units without translating them to Imperial miles for the consumption of the locals [/sarcasm]
What the hell is going on, and who replaced slashdot with this site?
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Reading is fundamental....
Indeed so.
TFS, last sentence:"Another impact structure in Siberia was created by an asteroid 100 km in size."
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
So how long before dropping a rock in the ocean is offered as a technological solution to Global Warming ?
Who in their right mind accepts a kdawson summary at face value?
besides what others posted here, you should also realize it would be possible to put a 100km asteroid (10x the size of the one in article) on a trajectory such that it would land on the earth with essentially zero kinetic energy. In other words, merely knowing the size of an asteroid or even its composition tells you nothing about relative velocity with the earth or angle of strike, all of which affect total impact energy.
Something that large hitting the earth would evaporate most of the oceans and turn a large proportion of the earths surface molten. If it didn't kill off life entirely it would certainly kill off almost all multicellular organisms and reset the evolutionary clock so an impact like that could not have happened in the last 600 million years at least.
Oops. Got a decimal in the wrong place. "A 100 cm in diameter". It may not have wiped out all life on Earth but it did scare the hell out of some fish.
Also,
Er, what was that about reading comprehension, again?
Reading is fundamental....
Indeed. Reading all the way to the bottom is equally useful:
"Another impact structure in Siberia was created by an asteroid 100 km in size."
[ cruise / casual-tempest.net / xenogamous.com / transference.org / quantam sufficit ]
Okay, first without pictures this story is kinda meh. And a still shot from the movie "Armageddon" doesn't count. And why didn't we find this with Google Earth!? I'm suspicious! :p
"coincided with a time of heavy asteroid bombardment globally"
So, if many other asteroids were impacting, then the effect of this particular one would have been negligible.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
you're a pal and a cosmonaut
I like this lyric way better than the real one.
"besides what others posted here, you should also realize it would be possible to put a 100km asteroid (10x the size of the one in article) on a trajectory such that it would land on the earth with essentially zero kinetic energy."
Utter rubbish. Even if it wasn't moving earths gravity would still accelerate it to a dangerous velocity before it hit us.
Not it wouldn't. It would be bad, but not likely to kill off almost all multicellular organisms.
And evolution isn't a clock.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I bet there would still be a small bump felt due to gravitational pull. Just a small bump:).
But, good point!
Reading is fundamental, you should try it.
Look at the last line of the 3rd paragraph.
The person you are replying to obviously read the article, but you where to busy trying to find someone to be snarky at to actual take the 35 seconds it would have taken to read the Article.
YOU are what is wrong with /.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvCUmeoHpw
Global Climate Change caused by a force OTHER THAN MAN KIND!!! Holy crud. I bet he didn't see that comming
It was Global Warming that caused the Asteroid to crash into the Earth.
There's another huge impact crater around Chicxulub, Mexico.
180km in diameter. Terrifying stuff, it makes a nuclear explosion look like a wet firework.
Let's hope we're ready for the next rock that comes our way. It's only a matter of time.
ahh the benefits of deep sea oil drilling and exploration!!! what could go wrong?
"Andrew estimates that the asteroid which struck the Timor Sea was between 5 and 10 km"
The crater left was up to 100km in diameter.
Of course this just goes to show that we should be spending more resources identifying, tracking, and technologies to deal with asteroids that have the potential to hit Earth. We are still largely dependent on amateur astronomers for the first two, which wouldn't be so bad except for the lack of viewing coverage and consistency, and while we have some ideas for the latter few have been tested. A 5 km to 10 km impact would be a devastating disaster for any country, and depending on the exact circumstances would have very significant international consequences as well! Unlike a lot of natural disasters, it is theoretically possible to entirely prevent large asteroid impacts with equipment currently achievable through the scientific and technical prowess of multiple developed nations. Yet, knowing human nature it will probably take a impact of at least a 100 m dia. object near a major population center for this threat to actually register to most people...
Major Tom to Betty White...
Commencing countdown, engines are alight.
an asteroid 5-10 km in diameter is roughly 40-160 cubic library of congresses
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
And evolution isn't a clock.
That's just a theory unless you can prove it! =P
The last sentence of that summary has _got_ to be a wording mistake. The impact CRATER in Siberia is 100km across. The impactor was (I just looked it up), "either an eight-kilometer diameter chrondrite asteroid, or a five-kilometer diameter stony asteroid." Indeed, an asteroid 100km across hitting the surface would leave something just a tad bit more noticeable than anything we've got so far, heh. And yes it would do really bad things to life on the planet; you're right on that count.
I like basketball!!1!
while we have some ideas for the latter few have been tested
All we need a is a massive clone army. "Fathered" by Bruce Willis.
which is totally what she said
What, no Google Maps link? :)
-Ed Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.
Evolution is not a clock.
It's a series of screws.
The enemies of Democracy are
to be standing 1000km away when an 8km asteroid hits the Timor Sea in an are with a depth of 1000m here is a neat link:
http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/crater.cgi?dist=1000&distanceUnits=1&diam=8&diameterUnits=2&pdens=3500&pdens_select=0&vel=20&velocityUnits=1&theta=65&tdens=1000&wdepth=1000&wdepthUnits=1
If you want to play with the inputs, here is the source site:
http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/
a 100km dense rock asteroid would sterilize the earth's surface. It would vaporize 343000 cubic miles of crust in less than a second.
Peak Overpressure: 6.89e+07 Pa = 689 bars = 9780 psi at 500km from impact. Actually at 500km from impact you'd be in the crater since it would be 520 miles in size. If it were possible to not be incinerated instantly, the pressure would probably cause you to explode as it dissipated. The wind would be 14900 mph
At 5000km from impact, you'd get hit with wind doing 978mph and get subjected to 54psi air pressure 4 hours after impact. This would kill you. Your body would be buried under 5.1 feet of ejecta
This is assuming a "Dense Rock" asteroid hitting the earth at a 45 degree angle, at 17000kph, which is the typical impact velocity. 11.8 RS earthquake would result over the entire earth. This is off the scale. It's nearly a quadrillion tons of seismic energy. It would split the earth. You would be launched high enough into the air to kill you from the impact when you came back down, if the acceleration didn't kill you. A nickel/iron one would be much worse.
http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/crater.cgi?dist=500&distanceUnits=1&diam=100&diameterUnits=2&pdens=&pdens_select=3000&vel=17&velocityUnits=1&theta=45&wdepth=&wdepthUnits=1&tdens=2500
The earth would most likely be an asteroid belt right now from this size of an impact at 45 degrees. It would survive an oblique impact, but the earth would get another moon and it would be an extinction event. The orbit would certainly be affected and the tides would change.
Yea it would be very messy and kill just about all multicellular animals. People would become extinct. There would be nowhere to hide on the earth's surface.
Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
"Another impact structure in Siberia was created by an asteroid 100 km in size" That would've caused an extinction as bad if not worse than the end-K event (the one that killed the dinosaurs) - I think they mean the *crater* is 100 km in size - presumably they're referring to Popigai crater, which is dated to the Eocene, but the *crater* is 100 km, not the asteroid. 100 km is a *big* asteroid.
It's not just asteroid size, or even mass, that determines its destructive force or crater size. A quick analogy: you can probably survive getting hit on the head by a normally thrown basketball but not by a cannonball.
So you're the one who created that dip in the stock market, eh?
"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway" -Andrew Tanenbaum
will quickly ban any mention of this crater for being too reminiscent of goatse.
while we have some ideas for the latter few have been tested
All we need a is a massive clone army. "Fathered" by Bruce Willis.
Will Demi Moore be involved in the process?
Reading is fundamental, you should try it.
Look at the last line of the 3rd paragraph.
The person you are replying to obviously read the article, but you where to busy trying to find someone to be snarky at to actual take the 35 seconds it would have taken to read the Article.
YOU are what is wrong with /.
Or maybe he is /. - profound I know!
Are you sure about that? Because, this shows us as being pretty well hosed, even in perfect conditions: minimum velocity, angle, and density, maximum distance from impact. Maybe not sterilized, but still stone (and probably ice) aged or worse. A 100 km wide vaguely spherical object displaces a hell of a lot of fluid and rock, even at low impact velocities.
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
There would be nowhere to hide on the earth's surface.
Or in other words: What surface? ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Once you prove, it's not theory anymore.
And the Lords of the Underworld!
Darkness fills my heart with pain!
When the girls start to sleep with girls,
Beelzebub will rise again!
Bow-ties are cool.
Will Demi Moore be involved in the process?
no but there is a chance that Chuck Norris will be involved in the process. The idea is to combine the die hard quality of Bruce Willis and the selfless brute that blew up the asteroid with the awsome round kick power of Chuck Norris. yes, you should be fearful of the potential for a Chuck Noris/Bruce Willis clone hybrid thing. But if you want we can have Demi Moore suck the needed DND from the two applicants.
Which part of that page you linked to says we would be sent back to the stone age? It seems to be describing a collision which would obviously devastate the area around the crater but with very minor global impact.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Right. Evolution is more like a lamp. Or perhaps a piano. But definitely not a clock. Everyone knows that.
There would be nowhere to hide on the earth's surface.
So we'll be fine in the basement right?
Which part of that page you linked to says we would be sent back to the stone age? It seems to be describing a collision which would obviously devastate the area around the crater but with very minor global impact.
While I do agree that those results don't indicate total collapse of technological civilization, but I would like to remind you that most of the results from that link are 20,000 km (12,400 mi) away from the point of impact. This includes the tsunami estimates of between 6.4 m (20.9 ft) and 12.7 m (41.7 ft). Considering where Timor is, I think we already have some idea (like bit this scaled up about ten times) how much damage the tsunami would cause in South-East Asia, North-Western Australia, and beyond. It may also cause atmospheric effects similar a large volcanic eruption, that while far from triggering an ice age, could cause measurable changes weather phenomena, perhaps for a year or more.
So despite the level sensationalizing by the GP, this sort of thing is very much something I'd rather not happen, even when I'm on the opposite side of the planet from the point of impact.
There would be nowhere to hide on the earth's surface.
So we'll be fine in the basement right?
That depends on how deep your bottomless pit really is.
If you can toss a one watt radio transmitter down there and actually lose signal, you're probably safe :D
The line from TFA actually says:
Another aster impact structure in Siberia is 100 km in size.
The "oid" in "asteroid" appears to be cut off for me.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
In that case, all that would happen is people would be willing to fund it for a few years, with less and less interest in it as time passes. Eventually, people would start demanding that it paid for itself, that the rich shouldn't be funding it because it's unfair that they do because they pay most of the taxes anyway, and then the project(s) would fold because there's no more money to run it.
We need just one well timed and placed extinction level event.
The wind would be 14900 mph
At 5000km from impact, you'd get hit with wind doing 978mph and get subjected to 54psi air pressure 4 hours after impact.
Not to disagree with the bulk of your argument, but can you have wind traveling faster than the speed of sound? At any rate, so very much faster than the speed of sound.
Protoplasm. Quiet Protoplasm. I like quiet protoplasm.
From your own link (and plugging in the density of a nickel-iron asteroid, in case that is what you were referring to):
The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
wrong, you miss the point entirely, there are trajectories for which after passage through the earths gravity the net relative velocity with respect to the earth is zero, at the ground!
very sure, there are trajectories for which an object can end up with zero relative velocity to its landing point on the earth, and at the ground. Impact velocity: zero.
It's (almost) possible but so fantastically improbable save for careful maneuvering that it's not worth considering.
(You could have it on a trajectory nearly parallel to the Earth where the Earth catches it from behind very gently (relatively speaking). This is a tiny fraction of all possible approach angles and a tiny fraction of all possible approach velocities.)