THE
CASE FOR A COSMIC HERITAGE
The kinds
of effects listed below would all have been experienced, and
experienced repeatedly. Throughout our history the probabilities
of cometary impact would by no means have remained uniform,
as we shall shortly see. Rather one would expect to find significant
bunchings of collisions, for the simple reason that fragmentation
events due to planetary encounters occur on a discrete basis.
| Energy |
Diameter
(for ice comet with v=13.5 km/s)
|
Effects |
1
MT TNT
(50 Hiroshima bombs) |
70m |
Disintegration
at high altitude, h>30km |
10
MT TNT
(500 Hiroshima bombs) |
140m |
Explosion
in low atmosphere or surface impact; localised blast |
102
MT TNT
(50,000 Hiroshimas) |
322m |
Localised
blast damage; tsunamis |
103
MT TNT
(50,000 Hiroshimas) |
700m |
Extensive
blast damage; fires, tsunamis |
105
MT TNT
(50,000 Hiroshimas) |
3.22km |
Extended
cratering; global effects; climatic changes; crop failures,
famines |
106
MT TNT
(50,000 Hiroshimas) |
7km |
Mass
extinctions |
|
