GEOL 118 Lecture Notes - Lecture 41: Nuclear Weapon, Lightning, Luis Walter Alvarez
11 May 2016
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Geol 118 - lecture 41 - meteorite impacts iii. Asteroid impact - effects of collision with earth by huge meteorite or comet ~65 million years ago. Proposed in 1979 by luis alvarez and walter alvarez. Size of meteorite to create ~1 mile wide meteor crater, az only 30 meters. Effects of 10 km asteroid collision = due to large size and high speed. Equivalent to detonation of ~10,000x entire nuclear arsenal of world at single point. As meteorite hits earth, jet stream of rock and dust is sent in all directions from impact point, producing giant ~200 km wide crater. Force from collision converted to shock waves and heat, which melts large part of crust along with asteroid. Shock waves reflected upward, sending molten rock skyward, igniting global fires, and sending soot into upper atmosphere. Impact also sends large amounts of dust into upper atmosphere.
