[meteorite-list] Another awful meteorite-related TV event

[al mitt]

Greetings,

Seems to me if a big one came down and did break into mantle material that 
we might have a magma wave and simultaneous volcanic eruptions with some of 
the major volcanoes on Earth. Not that anyone would care at that point.

--AL Mitterling


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
To: <cynapse at charter.net>; "Meteorite List" 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Another awful meteorite-related TV event



> Hi, List,

>

> To quantify that impact, I went and ran the numbers

> through the online Impact Calculator that uses the

> Jay Melosh model:

> http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

>

> If 216 Kleopatra is 220 km x 100 km x 100 km, its

> volume is 17,278,875.96 km^3 or a total of (take a

> deep breath) 1,778,875,960,000,000 m^3. That's

> 1.7 quadrillion cubic meters and its mass would be at

> least 3.5 quadrillion metric tons. (Dogbone and Potato

> asteroids have lots of voids and a high porosity.)

>

> No, wait! It's 114 Kassandra? Get your Apocalypses

> straight, people!

>

> The volume of 114 Kassandra is less than Kleopatra:

> 523,598,644,700,000 cubic meters. The mass of

> 114 Kassandra, if rock, has to be at a minimum of

> 1,500,000,000,000,000 tons, although some sources

> say it's only 1,000,000,000,000,000. That big number

> is a Quadrillion tons, in case you want to know.

>

> OK, it's Kassandra! Smaller, lighter. Really puny.

> I gave it an intercept velocity of 47 km/s, a little

> slow for an eccentric orbit from the Asteroid Zone,

> and an incidence angle of 45 degrees.

>

> The energy of the collision is  1.20 x 10^24 Joules

> or 268,000,000 MegaTons TNT. The Calculator says

> "The average interval between impacts of this size

> somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years

> is 360,000,000 years."

>

> That energy is the equivalent of an explosion created

> by detonating a nuclear arsenal 1800 times bigger

> than the entire nuclear arsenals of all the nations of

> the world -- at once.

>

> The final crater diameter is 39.5 km or 24.5 miles;

> its final depth is 0.895 km or 0.556 miles. That seems

> oddly small for something so big. Why is that? Well,

> the Calculator says that the final crater is replaced

> by a large, circular melt province. The volume of the

> target melted or vaporized is 6410 cubic km or 1540

> cubic miles. The melt volume is 2.87 times the

> crater volume

>

> If 114 Kassandra hit Los Angeles, you'd probably be

> alright (for a while) if you were in New York City (or

> Boston). You'd be alright, that is, if you can withstand

> the shock wave which, at that distance, would have

> a wind velocity of 140 mph, or a hurricane-level

> Force Nine Gale on the Beaufort Scale. Where I live,

> it'll be over 205 mph.

>

> The real problem, I suspect, is in the vaporization of

> a substantial percentage of that "melt province." If

> 10% of the rock vaporized, or 1.5 trillion tons of rock

> vapor would be distributed very quickly through the

> atmosphere at temperatures of more than 2000

> degrees F. That quantity of rock vapor amounts to

> about 20,000 tons of rock vapor per square mile

> of the Earth's surface.

>

> The Impact Calculator does not discuss the contribution

> of the asteroid to the mass of rock vapor. I would suggest

> that at least 1% of it would survive as "mere" rock vapor

> (instead of plasma) -- that's an additional ten trillion tons,

> raising the distribution to 110,000 tons of rock vapor per

> square mile of the Earth's surface (about 190,000,000

> square miles).

>

> I suggest a very study, fireproofed umbrella would

> be a good idea if you plan on going out...

>

> This is an impact at least 30 to 50 times worse than

> the Chicxulub Impact which, it has been suggested,

> burned most of the vegetation off the planet with its

> rock vapor plume. 114 Kassandra's effect could only

> be characterized as the "Krispy Kritter" impact.

>

> It sounds like a a lousy environment in which to

> stage a mini-series. But... That's Entertainment!