meteor storm (theory)

[pheniox17]

Question came up in ausprep of the possibility.... But I want to hit some reliable crystal balls....

Let's say a large meteor shower hits earth, where average meteor is the size of a football at point of impact what would you guys expect in damage, effects, (both social and physical) and any other thoughts???

I'm under the belief its similar to solar flares (if hits USA, will miss Australia) damage will be extremely random, and the mineral make up of the meteors will be the biggest worry (if you add a few radioactive materials to the makeup the mess gets worse)

I know the odds are low, but entertain me :p

To restate the question, if a meteor shower hits tomorrow, average land fall size being a football, what effects would you expect??

[OSFG]

Understand that I am completely inexperienced with these things, but I would assume that the wind resistance would slow it down somewhat as it entered the atmosphere. but I suppose it could be moving extremely fast to start with....so it could strike the ground anywhere from normal gravitational terminal velocity to oh..let say the speed of light. I think it's going to create a pretty good sized crater....like in 10's-100's of feet. and depending on how direct it hits earth it will either shatter into fragments dispersing it in and around the crater or it will shatter along its angular approach causing a fairly longer debris field.

A large enough shower of them (assuming football sized is the average size to make it through the atmosphere and strike land..... I would assume there to be some deaths, many fires depending on if it hit land not water.... and I would assume that there would be some who would say it was Gods punishment and some who would say we caused this by driving SUV's...
The next day the news would cover the next topic of the week...insurance money would be paid out and life would go on. being sarcastic here

That's my wild ass guess of the day....So whats the general consensus over there?

[TJC44]

One of the sites I check into regularly is Spaceweather.com. They have not only a monitor for solar flares, but they also monitor Near Earth Asteroids and other space phenomena (sp?). It seems a small asteroid came within 70Km on Saturday, THEY didn't even see it, or didn't post it for some reason, until today. They are pretty good about posting in depth stories about stuff like that, I expect we will see one in next day or so.
As far as stuff hitting Earth, I expect it happens more often than we think, for some reason we just don't hear about it. Didn't one come down in Russia not long ago?

TJC

[pheniox17]

Yep tj there have been a few random ones hitting lately

Osfg you may be more experienced than you think, I picture a massive arterially bombardment at a populated city, as the result of a event like this, news will be all over it for months (political brownie points, nothing like a good disaster) insurance will have it under "act of god" so chances are will screw people over a little more...

All I see is one huge mess, that makes what a lot of us prepare for look like child's play (IMO) almost like absolutely worse case scenario, but on the other side its so random the impacts, might as well be throwing salt at a ants nest to see how many ants get hit and how many don't

But some of the astronomy types may be able to fill us in, what are the chances of:

1) the meteors been comprised of radioactive materials

2) a separate effect like a EMP caused due to entry in atmosphere (I doubt this is possible, but the amount of energy discharged in this event may be enough??)

[Coppertop]

Are we talking football size meteors hitting the earth, or just hitting the atmosphere? The friction of the atmosphere would probably burn up a football size meteor (I think this happens quite a bit- shooting stars). This question also begs the consideration of the number of impacts. One or two, it's isolated and just a bad day for some folks. A couple hundred impacts, and we all spend some time digging people out of rubble and starting our generators.

I don't think anyone would see a penny of insurance money.

Thanks

[Coppertop]

Maybe Paul will chime in on this one?

[pheniox17]

Think worse case mate.... Say 00s to 000s but more something noticeable, 1 or 2 would be as you said just a bad day

[Pauls]

If you are talking about a meteorite the weight of a football you can expect a small crater about ten feet in diameter and 3-5 feet deep. If you are talking about the same size as a foot ball you are talking about a rock that weighs 10 - 15 pounds. That would at least double the crater size. A large building would stop either with little structural damage. The average home would need a roof repair and some internal repairs.

The thing is that most "showers" are pieces the size of sand to the size of a small rock before they hit the atmosphere. For something to hit the earth and be the size of a football it would start out two to three times that size and that size doesn't usually come in shower form.

If there were say twenty of these things in close proximity they would be gravitationally attracted and form one big aggregate meteor that would come apart in contact with the atmosphere and maybe even explode in the upper atmosphere.

There have been examples of meteorites this size; one hit a car and cause significant damage to the rear, the other hit a house and a woman sitting in the home wes hit. She was in no danger of losing her life but she did suffer brocken bones and bruises.

Smaller rocks slow down pretty fast so you are talking about a hit at the gravitational/wind resistence terminal velocity. (a hit in your head would still kill you)

[pheniox17]

So a shower as described is statistically impossible??

[adrowan]

The craters on the moon show us what the earth looks like in the absence of foliage, being covered in more than 80% water, erosion, like wind, rain, hurricanes, etc.
To really get an idea of an actual land hit, head on over to crater lake.

Also, one active volcano (like on the big island of Hawaii) spews out more toxic gasses in a day than all the SUV's in the world do in a year. Global Warming is just a political football used to keep the sheep in line. The Earth has gone through many Ice Ages, we just happen to be here for the prelude to the next one (kinda hard to prep enough for 5-8 Centuries).

Now the destruction of the wildlife in & around the Ocean's, that ones on us...that massive plastic garbage pile the size of the 48 states is our doing & if you want to get your Kleenex out, look up the UTube video of the annual birds nesting on Midway Island. The parents feeding their young plastic can carries, fishing lines & rotting nets because that's all they can find for 300 miles in any direction.