UKC

On September 7, 2016 a 30-foot asteroid flew between the Earth and the Moon. Our most powerful instruments only detected it with two days notice. Two days. If the asteroid was only 1000-foot wide, it would destroy all human life and we’d have no back-up to get out of it.

Makes you think, when will the next mass extinction event occur that includes us? Five mass extinction events and counting that we are aware of.

In reply to Lion Bakes:


But it would have to hit earth and not fly between the Earth and the Moon.

In reply to Lion Bakes:

8th of November 2016, a petulant child was voted in to office.

In reply to Lion Bakes:

It would probably be a good thing for Earth though.

In reply to Lion Bakes:

Flu, 7 billion, lot of runny noses

In reply to Lion Bakes:

All asteroids in the solar system large enough to do significant damage have now been identified. Calculations show we're safe (from big asteroids) for the next 100 years IIRC.

Besides it's chem trails you want to be worried about

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:
Thought it's only 95% of (was it 1km or 500m diam) serious contenders
Some of the annual shooting star showers are trails from larger bodies IIRC

In reply to John Kelly:

You could well be right.

I remember watching a horizon on it and jist of it being we're really unlikely to be hit by a big bugger for quite a while.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Don't forget those pesky comets sitting in the Oort Cloud

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Good, then we have plenty of time to nuke ourselves into extinction

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

yikes, you havnt been watching enough disaster movies, that phrase is as deadly as "after this is over I'm going to go home, marry Nancy and buy a little farm"

In reply to Lion Bakes:

Well if it happens in the next 20 years, I will feel vindicated in spending everything I earn and failing to save for retirement. Come armageddon, come armageddon...

In reply to Lion Bakes:


You mean six mass extinctions, the rate of extinction has never been higher than it is now. The dinosaurs didn't die out over night, these sort of things take thousands of years.

In reply to Robbie Blease: there are many geoscientists who would disagree with both of those statements.

Mind IM not sure a 300m meteorite would finish off mankind either

In reply to Robbie Blease:


I bet the extinction rate was higher when the Mexican asteroid hit

In reply to Lion Bakes:

It's not a bad thing, mass extinction. Makes space for the next bigger brighter and interesting. We've reached the so called pinacle of evolution and look where we are. About time the balance swung the other way, shares in cockroaches anyone?

In reply to Lion Bakes:

There are numerous instances of 1000' wide lumps hitting our planet since we've been around. And they really haven't caused much noticeable damage, although in all fairness I wouldn't want to be too near.

In reply to Dave Perry:


The world was much less populated and it really depends where it hit. A modest hit on a prominent nationation could weaken it leading to conflicts. A hit on the east coast of the USA?

It is statistically likely there will be at least one massive natural event in the next century, be it volcanic, disease or virus, solar flares, or modest lumps of rock and there isn't anything we can do to stop them.

In reply to summo:


We can send Bruce Willis.

In reply to Lion Bakes:
you dont have to stop them. Something like a Tunguska event over a city , or a large earthquake in SAN Francisco are statistically very possible but they dont mean the end of mankind.

For those who like such things - what was the last Tsunami to hit the UK? Effects?

In reply to Kevster:

even if the next big thing is the Thumb Cats?

In reply to abseil:


Or build a wall, a big beautiful strong wall ...

In reply to wbo:


Here you are.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunamis_affecting_the_British_Isles

T.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:

Given that London is pretty much on the limited now, it wouldn't take a big splash in the sea to the east to cause a problem.

In reply to Lion Bakes:

Getting clouted by an asteroid is only one potential cause of human extinction. Big solar flares, Gamma ray bursts, etc are all potential death dealers. Eventually the sun will expand and swallow the Earth closely followed by the Andromeda gallaxy crashing into the Milky Way.
Closer to home the extinction of the human race is harder to predict. War is always a favourite as is disease. Thought with 7 billion people and counting it is debatable whether such things could wipe out ALL human life. A general extinction of life with the collapse of food chains could be potentially very dodgy for us. Although again humanity is very resourceful so some of us might make it through. However a much reduced population would come under greater evolution pressures so we might evolve away from something recognisable as human.
And if all that doesn't get us then we might do it ourselves. Cybernetics and gene manipulation might take us down evolutionary corriors undreampt of

In reply to Duncan Bourne:

Soylent Green anyone?

In reply to Lion Bakes:

Still searching for an asteroid that will only take out Tories.

In reply to Jim Fraser:


Well they won't name it after Corbyn that's for certain.

In reply to Kevster:

Given that evolution is adaption to living in the environment around and isn't aiming for any particular end-point, at any given moment in time aren't all living species at the (current) pinnacle of evolution?

In reply to Pursued by a bear: thanks for that - i already knew about Storeggas as i needed to map, then reconstruct the pre collapse seabed as a piece of work. But the events from Dover and the Bristol Channel are fascinating

In reply to Lion Bakes:


We're already in the midst of the next great extinction, mostly the result of mechanised food production. It probably won't do for us entirely but it'll leave a recognisable extinction horizon in the geological record.
jk