- You probably have not heard of Manson Crater. It is where a giant asteroid hit the Earth at what is now Manson, Iowa. It was first discovered in 1912 when people realized that it was the location where water wells produced soft water. Everywhere else in Iowa the limestone earth produced water wells with definitely hard water. Manson was over a crater but it was not until 1953 that the University of Iowa set about to study the mystery with over 900 experimental wells dug in the area.
- There was no crater to be seen from the surface because the Ice Age and sent a glacier over the crater leveling it as smooth as a pool table. Yet they now knew they were standing on a crater that was 3 miles deep and 20 miles in diameter. Calculations determined that the amount of energy needed to create the crater came from an asteroid that was 1.5 miles diameter, weighing 10,000,000,000 tons and traveling at 140,000 miles per hour. It all happened 74,000,000 years ago.
- The Manson asteroid hit happened 9,000,000 years before the asteroid hit that killed all the dinosaurs. That happened 65,000,000 years ago in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, just 600 miles due south of New Orleans. That asteroid was bigger. It created a crater 120 miles in diameter and 30 miles deep.
- Even today asteroids are flying by our path of orbit about the Sun. There are some 26,000 asteroids named and identified. But, there must be over a billion asteroids in orbit with Earth, Mars and Jupiter. All circling the Sun together. Some 100,000 crossing Earth’s orbit every year. In 1991 we saw an asteroid after it had passed . It just missed us by 106,000 miles. The Moon is 265,000 miles away. In 1993 another larger asteroid passed us within 90,000 miles. Estimates are that these near misses occur 2 or 3 times per week. An asteroid 100 yards across can not be detected until it is just a few days from impact.
- The asteroid that created the Manson Crater would not have been visible to the naked eye until it hit the atmosphere at 140,000 miles per hour. That is 10 times faster than a rifle bullet. The heated atmosphere would be a flash of light one second before it hit the Earth. When the asteroid hit the atmosphere it compressed the air raising the temperature in a fire ball to 60,000 Kelvin. That is 10 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. Everything in the path of the asteroid would be vaporized, including the meteorite itself. It would all be gone upon impact.
- The resulting blast would hurtle 1,000 cubic kilometers of debris killing everything within a 150 mile radius. After the blast of blinding light a shockwave would follow carrying a dark, rolling cloud traveling 1,000 miles per hour. The shockwave would flatten everything out to a 1,000 mile radius. Gone would be Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, and Detroit. They would be flattened by a blizzard of flying projectiles carried by the shockwave.
- The devastation would continue in diminishing impact beyond 1,000 miles. The Earth would ring like a bell and trigger additional volcanoes around the globe. Tsunamis would devastate distant shores. Much of the planet would be covered in darkness and at the same time ablaze in flames. If it happened today at least 1,500,000,000 people would be dead day one. Around the world survivors would have not warning, no idea what happened. Millions more slow deaths would follow for months and years. The Earth’s climate would be affected to some degree for 10,000 years.
- Keep in mind this entire event could occur without any warning.
- How often statistically does such an event actually happen on average? Once every 1,000,000 years on average.
- The good news is that there would likely be some species including humans that survive. The bad news is the good news can not be counted on. Extinctions would certainly occur. Humanity could be one of these. Out of a clear blue sky such an event could happen. Live one day at a time and be thankful you got it. Destiny is in the hands of a Universe far bigger than us. Humility is in order. Enjoy the soft water when visiting Manson Crater.
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(1) From Bill Bryson’s “ A short history of nearly everything”
(2) #1265 “This asteroid missed us , but, what if”
(3) #1193 “ Asteroid to hit mother Earth”
(4) #937 “ Spinning asteroid, teacher’s lesson plan”
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707-536-3272, Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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