Eart impact/Effects

[Mikezoom]

Hi guys & Gals,

Just after some info as Im in the middle of a debate whether or not small sized asteroids could alter the Earth's rotation. Quote as follows...


"No, not correct. That is a "Hollywood" view. An asteroid twice the size of a VW Bug could do the trick nicely since it struck in that particular region. Also, the Earth's rotation was slowed by the event. When has a tsunami in that location ever happened prior to December 2004? That region is not known for tsunami activity. An asteroid strike causes an earthquake concussion event to take place in the sea floor - causing a 9.0 RICHTER SCALE quake, it ocsillates, burns into the floor as it rolls, and sucks in huge amounts of ocean - then, expels it as the floor resets. Moreover, asteroids come in all shapes and sizes, and at that time in late December there were several asteroids that orbited under geo-stationary satellites, which was why many scientists aware of this were working Christmas night."

Now my question is what do you guys think??? I would have thought that there was No way in the world an Earth impact the size of "2 VW s" would even put a hiccup in the Earth's rotation. I'd hate to shout "crank" but this seems even more far fetched than Hollywood.

Mike.B.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

This is a nonsense, objects less than about 50m in diameter loose most of their kenetic energy in the atmosphere. They do not strike the earth at Hyper- Velocity, most likely not even making it to the ground intact !

[Mikezoom]

Thankyou Ian, my thoughts exactly.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Not a hope to create that sort of reaction.

[astrogeek (Leon)]

What's the source for this information, I'd love to read it. Absolute crap though, I do physics and geology at uni and I know that there is no way that is the case. Might I add though that it is possible for a 50m sized object to hit the surface, in fact we get hit by a 10m+ object at least once a year. Also, given that a 2VW sized object would be about 10-15m why don't we have a boxing day tsunami at least once a year? I know, it's because they don't do that.

That region is not known for tsunami activity

What an idiot. That area is sitting right on top of a plate boundary, one of the areas on the earth where earthquake, and therefore tsunamis, are most common.

the floor resets

Actually the floor didn't reset, as can be seen by the fact that banda ache is now half submerged.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Well put astrogeek, good to see you putting that uni education to good use

[astrogeek (Leon)]

Well it's putting me into debt for the rest of my life so I might as well use it