by Ryan P

Created on: May 09, 2008   Last Updated: May 12, 2008

I implore you to join me on a thought experiment pertaining to the end of life on Earth. You may believe this to be depressing after that first sentence, but I assure you this is simply an exercise in thinking about the end of the world. I will ask you to consider the end of the world by way of astronomical object colliding with the Earth.

The comet proposed as the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs would have been around ten miles in diameter. For a size reference, imagine an object about the size of a small suburb. We need to think about an object that size impacting the Earth.

The first thing to happen in this catastrophe would be the carnage caused by the initial impact. Although a mere ten miles across, the crater would be roughly one hundred fifty miles across. This isn't an exact answer, but you can see that the size of the crater is multiplied several times over. This is caused by the energy of motion of this traveling rock being converted into seismic energy (among other types) of the Earth. I hope this statement isn't needed, but any life in this radius has almost zero chance of survival.

That is stage one of the catastrophe.

The second catastrophic event would be the earthquakes to follow the impact. The largest impact ever recorded was magnitude 9.5. The 9.5 magnitude event was powerful enough to cause devastation for a thousand miles around the epicenter. That is very dangerous.

The earthquakes caused by our comet would be roughly magnitude twelve to fifteen. This would have the power to create a fault around the entire planet. The shifting of the ground due to the quake would be upwards of twenty-five feet. This would cause a huge amount of ground damage. This is where most life ends.

The only means of surviving these quakes would be to live on the exact opposite side of the Earth as the impact. As for an explanation, the Earth's core is nearly impenetrable to seismic activity. If any of the shock wave did manage to go through, the tremors would be much more survivable.

Now that eighty percent of the world is in complete devastation, what happens to the other twenty percent?

This is the last and final stage of the catastrophe. I call this one Armageddon.

I didn't tell you the entire story. When the comet enters the atmosphere, it creates a hole in it. That hole in the atmosphere closes in a very short timescale, but it is open for a very small time.

It just so happens this time is long enough for dust, debris, and other particles from the impact to

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