Re: Comet deflection

From: Jim Yanik (jyanik_at_kua.net)
Date: 07/20/04 

To: sci-military-moderated@moderators.isc.org
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 14:46:28 +0000 (UTC)

Stephen <stephen@invalid.verso.org.retro.com> wrote in
news:40FB5335.1040909@invalid.verso.org:

> Jim Yanik wrote:
>> A "birdshot" strike would do MUCH less damage;you would not get the
>> tsunamis and severe weather effects caused by a large object impact
>> that would toss great deals of material/water vapor into the
>> atmosphere and generate huge shock waves.The smaller pieces might
>> even burn up in the atmosphere.If it were only broken into a few
>> still-large pieces,then it would not be of any great help.
>
> Depending on size of the rock, a birdshot strike might do
> significantly more damage. If the rock is turned into high velocity
> small chunks that all vaporize before hitting the ground, it will dump
> all its energy into the atmosphere. That could be really bad.

Not nearly as bad as an impact on land or sea,then debris and water vapor
gets put into the atmosphere,blocking sunlight.You get huge shock waves,a
huge crater,perhaps magma flow(that adds *more* energy there from hot
magma!),tidal waves.The atmosphere can absorb a lot of energy from frags
burning up in reentry,much better than a ground or water impact and it's
effects,which would be the MAIN problem.
>
> If the rock stays in one piece until it strikes the ground, it
> delivers a certain amount of its energy as heat to the atmosphere, and
> spends a lot of the rest on deformation of the ground it hits, which
> is a relatively localised problem.

I think you minimalize this impact and it's effect.

> Striking the ocean could be worse
> than striking the land, partly since the tsunamis could be more
> destructive, and I suspect a steam cloud into the atmosphere is worse
> than a dust cloud.
>

No,water vapor will condense and drop out as rain much faster than
dust,look at the effects from volcanoes.Their dust lasts for years.

>
> Stephen
> 

-- 
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net

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