Fire & Death From Above: Meteors
Earth Is In A Shooting Gallery
The Earth is constantly being bombarded by asteroids, in fact the Earth gains 100 tons of mass every day from small asteroids and space dust. Every so often and on a near regular schedule larger meteors strike the earth or explode violently in the atmosphere. It appears Earth has been on a lucky streak and is overdue for collision.
Leonid Meteor
The Tunguska Event
An asteroid capable of destroying a major city with the destructive force of a nuclear weapon strikes the Earth on average every one hundred years. The last such impact was in 1908 and exploded over the barren and sparsely populated area of Tunguska in Siberia. We are now eight years overdue and with each passing day the deficit only increases. The impact that created the famous Meteor Crater 50,000 years ago releasing the equivalent of 15 million tons of TNT occurs on average once or twice every one thousand years. While we can hope that our luck continues and the next impact is in another barren location the fact is that our ever increasing population will likely mean the next impact will prove deadly. In the worst case scenario the killer asteroid will strike a heavily populated city killing millions.
The devastation at Tunguska
Will a meteor strike a major city?
© 2016 Lloyd Busch