3 ms·

How about for the next Tunguska event?

• meepmorp 6y ago
  Most of the earth’s surface is still unpopulated, we’re probably fine assuming the same blast size. Even over a population center, it’s a local problem. Otoh, there’s a lot of risk from human factors, especially if over a city. With the right placement and timing, it could trigger a nuclear exchange.
  • avaldeso 6y ago
    > Even over a population center, it’s a local problem. Local? An impact in any large city with financial or industrial hubs would have global scale effects. NYC, Tokio, Shenzhen, London, Beijing, Shanghai. Throw a rock at any of those and the world will devolve into chaos.
    • meepmorp 6y ago
      Yeah, but most cities aren't global commerce centers, and the ones that are take up relatively little area compared to the total planet. We could lose most of the cities on earth with largely local impact. NYC would be a problem, but what about Buffalo? Even most national capitals aren't that important globally.
• vkou 6y ago
  The best way to prepare for that is to go outside, and enjoy the sunshine. You'll either be killed in the immediate blast, or, far more likely, not have your life be impacted at all.
• elihu 6y ago
  I think about 95% of preparing for Tunguska-type events is to be able to see it coming before it hits, so you can get out of the way or hunker down. I'm not sure where we are on that front in general, but the collapse of Arecibo means we've lost our most powerful terrestrial asteroid-tracking radar system. http://www.naic.edu/ao/scientist-user-portal/planetary-sciences http://www.naic.edu/ao/scientist-user-portal/planetary-scien... It's also worth noting that there's a reasonably good chance that we might prevent one or more future Tunguska events by spotting asteroids not right before the collide, but much earlier when they're on a trajectory that will eventually collide with Earth years or centuries in the future.