Earth gets hit by the exact same type of meteor that killed the dinosaurs

[MichaelC]

What if earth was hit by the exact same size and speed meteor as the one that killed the dinosaurs? It even hits the same spot it did the first time. Can humanity survive?

[penguin-in-leather-jacket]

the spot that the meteor in question hit is, iirc, mostly underwater, so i am envisioning a megatsunami as one of the effects of the impact. think of the tsunami that occurred after the 2004 Indonesia undersea eartquake except multiply its intensity by ,,, oh, a billion might be enough. except i'm not sure about that.

that's only one of the effects that will happen. there's going to be an absolutely colossal amount of material kicked up into the atmosphere even if it is a water impact site. conservatively maybe 50,000 cubic kilometers of earthen material? probably a lot more than that. this is going to completely block out the sun for a long time, probably years. this aspect would be worse if it were a land impact.

the impact of the meteor with the water (if water) is going to flash-boil a lot of water also, probably millions if not billions of tons of water. this will send a lot of water vapor into the air also, but that's not really a problem compared to the rest.

the planet earth, and life in general, will certainly survive. humans? perhaps, but definitely not in anything like our current numbers. i'd bet on 80% losses at the minimum. and that will pose its own problems, i.e. disposal. it wouldn't surprise me if it wipes us out. life itself will go on though.

[Kuro]

I know this is a stupid Michael Bay question, but is it really impossible to just blow up the meteor?

I mean, aren't there enough nukes just in the US to blow up the world many times over? Can't we just fire a shitload of them at the meteor and blow it up?

I am not a physicist so I don't know.

[penguin-in-leather-jacket]

I know this is a stupid Michael Bay question, but is it really impossible to just blow up the meteor?

I mean, aren't there enough nukes just in the US to blow up the world many times over? Can't we just fire a shitload of them at the meteor and blow it up?

I am not a physicist so I don't know.

even if we blew the meteor into many smaller pieces, those pieces would still cause catastrophic damage, maybe human extinction level damage. also, the idea that the US supply of nukes would completely destroy the planet -- no, not even close. the most powerful nuclear weapon ever used was the Tsar Bomba, which had approximately 53 megatons of TNT worth of energy release. i think the meteor impact referenced above was at least 100,000 times stronger. that might be a conservative estimate. and obviously that didn't destroy the planet or even come close.

[Postmania]

When people refer to us possessing nukes enough to end the world, they don't mean destruction of the planetary mass itself.

They're referring to the massive side effects of radiation, nuclear winter, and economic upheaval as crops die and our food banks run out.

For example, our plans to offensively bomb Soviet Russia also included completely destroying China, and it was known that the effects of this bombing would also all but destroy surrounding countries. It was known that casualties were likely half a billion, even while downplaying effects such as fire. Just on the bombs' initial effects alone. And that was before we knew about the nuclear winter phenomenon.

Meteors don't care about those things though, so it would still cause a ton of damage with fragments yeah.

[The MunchKING]

What if earth was hit by the exact same size and speed meteor as the one that killed the dinosaurs? It even hits the same spot it did the first time. Can humanity survive?

Well humans ARE really hardy. And if you think about it, the asteroid killed off DINOSAURS, and Mega-flora. The smaller hardier things that needed less food survived well enough. Heck Alligators and crocodiles are pretty much unchanged from back then, meaning there was enough meat for them to keep on trucking.

It won't be pleasant, but the smaller plants that need less sunlight might survive, and humans could in theory survive on those plants and whatever meat they can catch.

even if we blew the meteor into many smaller pieces, those pieces would still cause catastrophic damage,

Well yes, but the more pieces there are, the more of it can burn off from the atmosphere and whatnot. so a lot of little meteors would probably be a lot less damaging than one big one.

[Guy1]