Here’s a follow up to my post yesterday on the asteroid Apophis. JPL has an interesting little calculator for calculating the effects of celestial bodies impacting with Earth.
After plugging in the parameters that Neal deGrasse Tyson mentioned (100m in diameter, impacting 500 miles away – in 3 miles of ocean), it yielded some pretty insignificant results (besides the tsunami that would be generated).
Your Inputs:
Distance from Impact: 805.00 km = 499.90 miles
Projectile Diameter: 100.00 m = 328.00 ft = 0.06 miles
Projectile Density: 3000 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 17.00 km/s = 10.56 miles/s
Impact Angle: 45 degrees
Target Density: 1000 kg/m3
Target Type: Liquid Water of depth 4.57 meters, over typical rock.
Energy:
Energy before atmospheric entry: 2.27 x 1017 Joules = 5.42 x 101 MegaTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 2.4 x 103years
Atmospheric Entry:
The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 54000 meters =
177000 ft
The projectile reaches the ground in a broken condition. The mass of projectile strikes the surface at velocity 6.66 km/s = 4.14 miles/s
The impact energy is 3.49 x 1016 Joules = 8.33 MegaTons.
The broken projectile fragments strike the ground in an ellipse of dimension 0.81 km by 0.573 km
Major Global Changes:
The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the Earth’s rotation period or the tilt of its axis.
The impact does not shift the Earth’s orbit noticeably.
Crater Dimensions:
The crater opened in the water has a diameter of 1.85 km = 1.15 miles
For the crater formed in the seafloor:
Crater shape is normal in spite of atmospheric crushing; fragments are not significantly dispersed.
Transient Crater Diameter: 1.12 km = 0.695 miles
Transient Crater Depth: 0.396 km = 0.246 miles
Final Crater Diameter: 1.4 km = 0.869 miles
Final Crater Depth: 0.298 km = 0.185 miles
The crater formed is a simple crater
The floor of the crater is underlain by a lens of broken rock debris (breccia) with a maximum thickness of 138 m = 454 ft.
At this impact velocity ( < 12 km/s), little shock melting of the target occurs.
Thermal Radiation:
At this impact velocity ( < 15 km/s), little vaporization occurs; no fireball is created, therefore, there is no thermal radiation damage.
Seismic Effects:
The major seismic shaking will arrive at approximately 161 seconds.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 5.2
Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 805 km:
- Nothing would be felt. However, seismic equipment may still detect the shaking.
Ejecta:
Most ejecta is blocked by Earth’s atmosphere
Air Blast:
The air blast will arrive at approximately 2440 seconds.
Peak Overpressure: 138 Pa = 0.00138 bars = 0.0195 psi
Max wind velocity: 0.324 m/s = 0.725 mph
Sound Intensity: 43 dB (Easily Heard)