Cosmic Collision May Have Created Hawaii

SPACE.com ^ | 01 August 2001 | Michael Paine

[Mike Darancette]

Just one non political post.

[Mike Darancette]

PINGGGG

[gcruse]

I can't imagine an asteroid big enough to create a hot spot plume at the antipode which is, after all, all the way through the planet.

Maybe it will give a plume that is already there a pop, or create an interstitial weakness that later becomes a hot spot. More likely, hot spots just happen.

[blam]

Professor Mike Baillie speculates about this in his excellent book, Exodus To Arthur

[MainFrame65]

The math is well beyond me, but I believe that the idea is that the stricture of the Earth would act as a lens and mirror system, with the varying densities of the inner core, mantle, and crust, as well as the boundary effect of the outer spherical surface acting to focus the energy on the opposite side (antipode).

I don't know if it relates, but if you drop a heavy ball straight down into a pool, the water flows around the top of the ball and spouts upward rather than just splashing out.

[Mike Darancette]

Exodus To Arthur

Thank you --- on my list now.

[gcruse]

Lensing is certainly possible. But think how much power it would take to punch a hole in the mantle...

[Mike Darancette]

I can't imagine an asteroid big enough to create a hot spot plume at the antipode which is, after all, all the way through the planet.

The shock waves are radiated in all directions from the impactor. The shock waves travel around the globe and can be additive at the antipodes.

There can be as much damage on opposite side of an island as on the end hit by a tsunami because the wave reinforces itself when it comes together again.

[farmfriend]

Non indexed Gods, Graves, Glyphs ping.
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List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.

[blam]

"Didn't that impact in the Gulf of Mexico come in at an angle? If we drew a line through the earth, not through the center, but from the angle of impact, would we hit the Hawaiian Islands????"

I believe it was reported to have impacted at 35 degrees. (Just a little north of the Mexican city of Merida)

[commish]

the Moon, which don't disappear on the geologically dead and atmospherically challenged satellite.

Good god, PC speak has so thoroughly invaded and corrupted our speech that we noe refer to the moon as "Atmospherically challenged".

[Mike Darancette]

"Atmospherically challenged".

Quite humorous actually. As to Michael Paine, I assure you that he is NOT p.c.

[commish]

Oh, I know Michael is not PC, I was just pointing out how this crap has become so ingrained we say stuff like this without even thinking about it.

I am about as Right-wing un-PC as one can get, and I even catch myself saying things like this these days.

[ServesURight]

How can an asteriod just a mile long do significant damage to a relatively large planet like Earth?

I mean, a mile is very small compared to Earth. This is akin to a penny shredding your house if it falls from the sky.

[Slicksadick]

Great picture from the article...

The Hawaiian Islands sit right in the sunglint field in this SeaWiFS image. Note also how the windward sides of the islands are greener (more rain) than the leeward sides.

[Redcloak]

Think of it this way: A half cubic mile of nickle and iron hitting the ground at something around Mach 20. "Ouch time".

[Mike Darancette]

How can an asteriod just a mile long do significant damage to a relatively large planet like Earth?

Because it is going really fast.

[COEXERJ145]

How can an asteriod just a mile long do significant damage to a relatively large planet like Earth?

Remember, an object coming in from space is going to be traveling at extremely high velocity. When the object suddenly decelerates upon impact or when the sheering forces tear it apart, its massive amount of kinetic energy (energy of motion) is instantly converted into thermal energy (heat energy). This instant conversion creates an explosion that can be as great or even thousands of times greater than the largest nuclear weapons ever built.

The event at Tunguska was estimated to have been caused by an object roughly 50-100 meters in diameter. Far less than 1+ miles in side. While Tunguska thankfully didn't hit the ground, it detonated in the air around 15,000-25,000 feet. When it exploded, it was traveling around 7 miles per second. The force of the explosion has been estimated to be anywhere from 15 megatons up to 40 megatons. (Most experts agree somewhere around 20-25 megatons is the most likely.) Think about how much damage something like this could do if it hit the ground or a populated area. Hiroshima was only 12.5-15 kilotons. (1,000 kilotons=1 megaton) The explosion at Tunguska also created an detectable electromagnetic pulse which damaged electric equipment (telegraphs, phone systems, wireless) at very long distances from the blast site.

We all know about Meteor Crater in Arizona. A somewhat smaller object created this giant hole.

Now compare it to Sedan Crater which is at the Nevada Test Site. It was created by a 104 kiloton test (around 1/10 of a megaton) in 1962.

[dakine]

Green equals Mauka showers....Brown equals Kona winds...