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Re: Meteor May Not Have Destroyed Dinosaurs Afterall?
GeoZay@aol.com schrieb:
> Elton: I recall a "fact" that the Meteor Crater impact released
> such a thermal blast that "all life" (sic) within a 800 mile
> diameter was killed immediately.<<
> I can't seem to find my little "brochure" about meteor crater when
> I visited it last, but it seems to me that the region of "all life"
> that was killed from the thermal blast covered a diameter of 75 miles
> or 200 miles...I can't remember which? Perhaps neither, but I don't
> think it was 800 miles?
No, it wasn't. See the latest issue of S&T, Nov. 1999, pp. 48-53:
Calamity at Meteor Crater by David A. Kring, excerpts:
The resulting pressure gradient generated a wind exceeding 2,000 km per
hour, which stripped any grass and flattened all the trees within 14 to
22 km of the impact. Roughly a third of the trees several kilometers
farther out might have fallen victim to the gale as hurricane-force
winds buffeted the landscape as far away as 40 km. The blast completely
destroyed the vegetation over an area of 800 to 1,500 square kilometers
around the impact site.
Past studies suggest that the pressure wave from the Meteor Crater event
would have killed all large mammals within 3 to 4 km of the impact and
damaged the lungs of others out to distances of 6 to 12 km.
Best wishes and good night around the globe,
Bernd
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