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If an Asteroid struck the Earth today?


MysteryMike

Would anything survive?  

19 members have voted

  1. 1. Will we and all animals die off?

    • Humanity lives, some animals live
      16
    • Humanity lives, all animals die
      0
    • Humanity dies out, some animals live
      3
    • Humanity, and all animals die
      0


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So I was just wondering, but let's say like what happened to the dinosaurs. If an Asteroid struck the earth today? Would humanity or any other animals today be able to survive or do you think they would eventually go extinct just like what happened to the Dinosaurs, which was 65 million years ago? Also what animals do you think would become extinct?

Give out your answer and reasons why or why not?

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Define the size, composition, speed etc (and therefore energy) of said asteroid in question and where the impact might be. A global killer is named such for a reason.

Edited by Oppono Astos
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Define the size (and therefore energy) of said asteroid in question. A global killer is named such for a reason.

An asteroid as big as the one that killed the Dinosaurs. Somewhat like 6 miles wide or something and going faster than a speeding bullet with an impact more than 100 nuclear bombs.

Edited by MysteryMike
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All depends on the size. But nothing has hit Earth in, what, 4 billion years? that has been enough to wipe out life on Earth and I doubt anything could.

Human civilisation as we know it - and a great deal of life as we know it - would struggle to survive a Chicxulub size impact, though I doubt even that woud wipe us out given our technology and ingenuity. But most of us would lead a pretty miserable life in the aftermath compared to what we've become used to.

(and don't forget a LOT of animals survived the Chicxuub impact , else we and birds and fish and crocodiles etc wouldn't be here today)

Edited by Essan
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In my opinion. I think civilization would most likely crumble and some of us would survive only we have to revert back to the iron age (medieval times) like having empires and must start all over again because all technology would be gone like tv, cars, and all sorts. New religions would probably be made as well.

As for animals. Animals I see surviving are small ones such as rats, foxes, as well as all reptiles (Including Crocodilians), all amphibians, most fishes such as sharks, all invertebrates, Black Bears (Because they can adapt to any change), Polar Bears (Because it's likely pinnipeds would survive and that is the only food that keeps them alive), Pinnipeds (They have blubber and fat stored so they wouldn't need to eat for a long time and can supplement their diet on fish), Wolverines (They'll just eat small size rodents), Toothed Whales (Same thing as Pinnipeds, and Polar Bear), and believe it or not. I think Wild Boars would too survive. Those things can eat anything even dirt and can pretty much adapt to any environment no matter what. Birds too.

As for animals that would go extinct. It would be anything over 65 lbs with some exceptions, which are the large ones I said above. The first to go would probably be the large herbivores such as Elephants and Rhinos. Then the carnivores like Wolves, Big cats such as Tigers and Lions, and Hyenas and other creatures like them.

Edited by MysteryMike
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If we had forewarning that it was coming, a few things could be arranged. Deep network of tunnels and survival equipment and the such. Humanity is like a virus, we will survive :)

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In my opinion. I think civilization would most likely crumble and some of us would survive only we have to revert back to the iron age (medieval times) like having empires and must start all over again. New religions would probably be made as well.

As for animals. Animals I see surviving are small ones such as rats, foxes, as well as all reptiles (Including Crocodilians), all amphibians, most fishes such as sharks, all invertebrates, Black Bears (Because they can adapt to any change), Polar Bears (Because it's likely pinnipeds would survive and that is the only food that keeps them alive), Pinnipeds (They have blubber and fat stored so they wouldn't need to eat for a long time and can supplement their diet on fish), Wolverines (They'll just eat small size rodents), Toothed Whales (Same thing as Pinnipeds, and Polar Bear), and believe it or not. I think Wild Boars would too survive. Those things can eat anything even dirt and can pretty much adapt to any environment no matter what. Birds too.

As for animals that would go extinct. It would be anything over 65 lbs with some exceptions, which are the large ones I said above. The first to go would probably be the large herbivores such as Elephants and Rhinos. Then the carnivores like Wolves, Big cats like Tigers, and Hyenas and other creatures like them.

I disagree with that, it would take a long time for an animals fur to change and before it does, it would be extinct because the plant life would die first no sunlight, then you have animals that eat plants, eventually a slow way of exciting life. but you have to consider the location of where it hits the Earth. I think Wolves will survive longer and again with lions, there were European lions and snow lions, they could adapt too.

But you have to think this more in depth.

Why?

Who?

What?

When?

How?

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I disagree with that, it would take a long time for an animals fur to change and before it does, it would be extinct because the plant life would die first no sunlight, then you have animals that eat plants, eventually a slow way of exciting life. but you have to consider the location of where it hits the Earth. I think Wolves will survive longer and again with lions, there were European lions and snow lions, they could adapt too.

But you have to think this more in depth.

Why?

Who?

What?

When?

How?

I have no doubt Crocodiles and Alligators would survive though. If they survived the dinosaur extinction. I'm sure they'll survive another one as well. Besides this is just my opinion.

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First we would have to know the size of the asteroid and then the impact location, after that we could determine the type of damage it could cause.

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First we would have to know the size of the asteroid and then the impact location, after that we could determine the type of damage it could cause.

I already said the size of it if you read above and I guess somewhere near where the previous asteroid struck 65 million years ago.

Edited by MysteryMike
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I already said the size of it if you read above and I guess somewhere near where the previous asteroid struck 65 million years ago.

Well, that is not a size but a speculation (because to this day we don't know the size as impact craters are a combination of the weight and speed of the impacting object). Now, if you are talking about an impact roughly the same magnitude ( size and speed) as what (supposedly) wiped out the dinos some places will be uninhabitable but on the large within a few thousand years most will be recovered. Mammals can adapt to most anything to survive, one reason the mammals survived while the dinos and most reptiles had to lay down the spoon. Naturally the head count of humans won't be in the billions but rather in the millions once the debris are cleared.

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Well, that is not a size but a speculation (because to this day we don't know the size as impact craters are a combination of the weight and speed of the impacting object). Now, if you are talking about an impact roughly the same magnitude ( size and speed) as what (supposedly) wiped out the dinos some places will be uninhabitable but on the large within a few thousand years most will be recovered. Mammals can adapt to most anything to survive, one reason the mammals survived while the dinos and most reptiles had to lay down the spoon. Naturally the head count of humans won't be in the billions but rather in the millions once the debris are cleared.

Yes that's what I mean.

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If we had forewarning that it was coming, a few things could be arranged. Deep network of tunnels and survival equipment and the such. Humanity is like a virus, we will survive :)

I can agree with that, but most likely most of humanity would be gone and only small pockets of us would probably live.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've forgot to mention that now that I think of it. Elephants would actually survive too. Yes they're big, but they have the intelligence and tools to survive an asteroid impacted world. Also they can survive in very harsh environments with little food. So I see them having no trouble surviving.

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Given that there are microorganizisms living in the Crust of the Earth at depths close to a mile, I doubt life would be wipes out by anything less then being swallowed by the Sun, or a Nova.

Humans are survivors, and dispite even our own best efforts, I think that we'll never get wiped out. Once we settle in space, we'd've gone viral.

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well discovery made a show on just this scenario - what if the dino-killing asteroid (one identical to it) struck today down in the yucatan... decent show :)

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Let's not forget there are no dinosaur fossils in the KT boundary. So they died off right before the asteroid. Probably due to weather or disease.

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I say it would be a bottle neck affect. 90- 98 % of humans would die. The asteroid that killed the dinos changed the weather and such. But upon impact the stuff that rained down pretty much ignited the world. If people are under ground they would survive. But then there is food and water to look for and with most things gone like no hospitals doctors etc diseases would start. People would be pretty p***ed without facebook and twitter and would probably start cave painting their thoughts and feelings.

I say small animals/insects hardy plants and bacteria are fine. Being on top of the food chain we would adapt but I population would fall to below half a million even less. The last bottle neck produced a population estimated to be no more then 100 000 individuals hence all the red necks and tasmainians. ^_^

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a show called the super comet is based on a comet hitting us now its a documentary type thing.

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