Giant tsunami from dino-killing asteroid impact revealed in fossilized ripples
sciencemag.org
sciencemag.org
Edit: They are using a much larger asteroid in their simulation, makes sense.
Actually might be wrong about that:
"Three-dimensional computer models developed in May 2009 by a team at the University of Colorado at Boulder postulate that much of Earth's crust, and the microbes living in it, could have survived the bombardment. Their models suggest that although the surface of the Earth would have been sterilized, hydrothermal vents below the Earth's surface could have incubated life by providing a sanctuary for heat-loving microbes."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Heavy_Bombardment
Crazy. But that's only the most basic of microbes that would survive something like that.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gig_in_the_Sky
I always thought the story was that Roger Waters asked the vocalist to think about death, but perhaps that’s apocryphal. At the very least it’s appropriate for this video!
I remember when the Killers song Somebody Told Me was all over the radio. I HATED that f'ing song. But I came to love the killers as a side note. When I found out later that was their song I couldnt help liking it more and myself less.
edit:
> She was Alan Parsons' idea. We wanted to put a girl on there, screaming orgasmically. (David Gilmour)
But if we discovered one, even with ample lead time, what could we do?
interesting. If true, doesn't this have implications for Sagan's Equation? i.e. if life is wiped out and it (somehow) starts again, that implies that any planet like Earth will develop complex life forms given enough time? (or am I missing something...)
There might be some disruption of the asteroid during its final approach due to tidal forces from the Earth. Whether or not that would result in significant heating of the asteroid's interior is another question.
Early in the history of the solar system, it's possible that many bodies were still hot from latent heat of formation (effectively: the conversion of gravitational potential energy to heat, plus whatever contribution comes from radioactive materials in the body). Note that the heat of Earth's interior is just this, still leaking slowly into space after 4.5 billion years. Large objects take time to cool, and the vacuum of space eliminates conductive and convective cooling, leaving only blackbody radiation. Thermal management is a major issue for satellites and space probes, particularly if they have a significant energy demand.
The producers and sponsors of discovery channel 90s-00s should be immensely proud of themselves.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/smash-satellites-killer-astero...
Some would deny an asteroid was coming, clinging to their profits or parties or deities by FUDing the astronomers and engineers.
Some would say let's put all all our effort to get some people off planet, at least into long term orbit (Stephenson's Seveneves), to save the gene pools. Begin debating who goes.
Some would say don't waste any resources on the orbit plan: put everything we have into deflecting the asteroid so it misses Earth altogether.
We should start now, today, learning how to build a planetary consensus about everyday things before we're faced with an urgent extinctor. We already ushered in the long term one.
Welcome fuel!
I believe a lot of coal harkens back to the great forests of the carboniferous (sp?) Period, which is special because it took millions of years for life to learn how to digest the cellulose in trees. So you can imagine millions of years of buried forests that could burn, but not decompose. Forest fires in those days must have been truly terrifying.
That was a one off event in Earth's history, and has not been repeated. I believe it's partially responsible for why modern CO2 levels are much lower than historical levels. It was a massive natural carbon sequestration program. At least until us humans in our short sightedness dig it up and burn it.
As https://news.ucsc.edu/2012/06/giant-insects.html says, before birds you see a clear correlation between insect size and oxygen level. After birds, the correlation disappears.
And it's not just insects. For example, the ancestors of dinosaurs evolved a highly efficient respiratory system towards the end of the permian period when oxygen concentrations were low, which likely helped them survive the deadliest mass extinction ever. Afterwards, oxygen levels skyrocketed up, and the dinosaurs, who still had their efficient lungs, could take advantage of it and became the giants we know and love. This same system is also key to the ability of modern birds to fly.
Insects and other arthropods breathe through their skin, so the amount of oxygen they can get is limited by their surface area, whereas the amount of oxygen they need is determined by volume. Thus for any given oxygen concentration, there is some maximum surface area to volume ratio for insects, and in turn a size limit for any given body plan. This is why, for example, the largest species of tarantulas across multiple continents, despite evolving separately, are all the same size - being big has a lot of perks, but if they got any bigger they'd suffocate.
Today trees rot because microbes evolved to decompose lignin. A million years from now maybe plastic will rot too.
It helps to make clear how the giant carboniferous coal deposits were formed: plastic tree landfills.
At least nature may bail us out of that mistake we made with plastic. Could you imagine if we used it for millions of years without it being able to decompose? Your analogy would become reality.
There is a heaping pile of physical evidence that the earth's rotation changed at the same time the sun had an ELE scale micronova as recently as 12,000 years ago. The theory is that, exactly like solar maxima and minima are on a predictable cycle, these micronovas are as well, about every 12,000 years.
We found flash frozen waves, instantly frozen animals, and all other manner of things that can only be caused by a sudden drop in the earth's temperature.
The theory is that the earth and sun's magnetic fields are interlinked (they are), and pole reversals in the earth are tied to the sun. The sun micronovas at the same time, which causes half the earth to freeze and the other half to cook. At the same time, the earth's rotation flips, causing massive tsunami's. There's evidence of the massive tsunamis if you look at the continental shelves on google earth. There are fission tracks on the moon and on earth that prove a solar event, although that information is closely guarded by NASA.
It's a fun theory. I don't rule it out at all. Check out suspicious0bservers.org and select videos from the Diehold Foundation (skip the religious videos).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_freezing
Your link directly contradicts the "heaping pile of evidence" of rapid shifts, and the proposed theory is not one of sudden (in a matter of seconds, or even centuries) shift, but at the order of millennia. Even that rate of movement has no supporting evidence:
While there are reputable studies showing that true polar wander has occurred at various times in the past, the rates are much smaller (1° per million years or slower) than predicted by the pole shift hypothesis (up to 1° per thousand years).[2][3][22] Analysis of the evidence does not lend credence to Hapgood's hypothesized rapid displacement of layers of the Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataclysmic_pole_shift_hypothe...
Anyone can propose a hypothesis.
Demonstrating it to sufficient degrees of robustness to be widely and generally accepted is another matter.
Note that this does in fact happen, as in the case of another geological crackpot theory now accepted as not only fact, but the core theory of all geology: plate tectonics. This occurred over the course of 50 years as increasing independent lines of evidence all pointed at the same conclusion:
- The correspondence of shapes of numerous continents.
- Similar geological formations and fossil records in now widely-separated regions.
- An understanding of the atom and nuclear chemistry, giving rise to radioactivity, the thermal engine driving geotectonics.
- Seismic observations of the Earth's interior.
- Seafloor surveys, including evidence of magnetic pole reversals, giving a timeline and estimate of seafloor spreading.
- Evidence of extrusion and subduction.
- Widely correlated zones of tectonic and volcanic activity.
Those are measures of proof that are sufficient to establish a given scientific (in this case, geological) fact and theory.
Naomi Oreskes has written several books and papers on how "continental drift" travelled from a fringe theory to accepted truth: https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=au%3Ao...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_development_of...