What would happen if an asteroid hit our earth.?

Question

I'm saying an asteroid smaller than a football field, i know theres so much energy packed in it. So how much damage would it do to our earth? and when an asteroid hit would many hit at a time.

Answer 1

You'll enjoy the asteroid-impact simulator on this website..! Just punch in the parameters you want and see what the impact effects would be.

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

Answer 2

The good people at the Lunar and Planetary Lab have written this;



http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/



Now, the size of your asteroid is not as important as its mass, which in turn depends on its density.



And asteroids aren't all the same.



Some types are denser than others, and so an S-type (stony) will have more mass and will do more damage than a C-type (carbonaceous, rich in organics, not metals).



So, now you have some idea of the choices at the above site. It explains also that you need to know the impact speed.



It's very unlikely for an asteroid to smack into the earth in a head-on collision, so the upper limit of 70+ km/s is very rare - the asteroid would have to be retrograde (orbiting in the other direction) and that's not a terribly common state of affairs.



Your last question is a bit trickier. Asteroids, or at least the smaller ones, probably aren't held together very strongly. It's possible that tidal forces from the Earth could cleave a suitably weak asteroid into fragments.



If you want to see what we're up against, may I recommend Armagh observatory's pages;



http://szyzyg.arm.ac.uk/~spm/neo_map.html



and in particular



http://szyzyg.arm.ac.uk/~spm/local_map.html

(the local 'weather')

Answer 3

If an asteroid the size of a foot ball field hit the earth, the immediate area would be unlivable. Think of Pompeii. When that volcano erupted, all the ash flew into the air blocking out the sun, suffocating people ect.

An asteroid would do much the same thing.

As well as the fact that chunks would break off the main asteroid.

Answer 4

It's not so much how big it is, but how dense. Multiply weight times speed and you will get foot-pounds of force. Next, determine where it hits. 2/3 of the Earth's surface is water which has a different density than solid earth. It's likely that if it hits land, it would create a huge cloud of dust depending on its size and the composition of the area it hits. If it hits a fault line, it will definitely cause an earthquake of high magnitude. If it's too far away, there will be tremors, and the bigger it is, the higher the magnitude of the tremors. If it hits water, it will depend on the depth of the water, a little on the temperature of the water, the angle it hits and what is nearby. It would probably create a giant wave which could be large enough to completely engulf beach areas. Look up Lake Baikal in Russia. I think that's the correct spelling. There have also been a couple of speculative movies made, but who knows if they're any good.

Answer 5

nicely, so as or an asteroid to be rather devastating, it may probable be a kilometer or extra in diameter. issues this huge could in basic terms effect earth as quickly as each a hundred,000 years or so. the possibilities of the Earth getting hit via a substantial asteroid are small. yet whilst we do get hit, it rather is extra probably to bypass into the sea.

Answer 6

A nickel-iron impactor of that size ( 100 meters ) would do quite a bit of damage but it wouldn't be the end of the world. Something like that would completely obliterate New York City. Rather than go into scientific drivel, I am going to link you to the Meteor Crater wiki. That impactor was estimated at 50 meters, so you could just about triple the damage radii for a "goal-line to goal-line" rock.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_Crater

Answer 7

...But first, humanity would have tried its best to do something so that this Asteroid wont hit the Earth (Unless if it wasnt detected).

Answer 8

all with in impact zone would die

fire balls would fall to earth

tsunamis

great wind



These are just a few, watch a show called mega disasters they have an episode on this it's on the history or discovery channel