Earth Impact Effects Program

Robert Marcus, H. Jay Melosh, and Gareth Collins

Please note: the results below are estimates based on current (limited) understanding of the impact process and come with large uncertainties; they should be used with caution, particularly in the case of peculiar input parameters. All values are given to three significant figures but this does not reflect the precision of the estimate. For more information about the uncertainty associated with our calculations and a full discussion of this program, please refer to this article

Your Inputs:

Distance from Impact: 1000.00 km ( = 621.00 miles )
Projectile diameter: 20.00 km ( = 12.40 miles )
Projectile Density: 8000 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 30.00 km per second ( = 18.60 miles per second )
Impact Angle: 50 degrees
Target Density: 2750 kg/m3
Target Type: Crystalline Rock

Energy:

Energy before atmospheric entry: 1.51 x 1025 Joules = 3.60 x 109 MegaTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 2.5 x 109years

Major Global Changes:

The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the tilt of Earth's axis (< 5 hundreths of a degree).
Depending on the direction and location of impact, the collision may cause a change in the length of the day of up to 50.5 milliseconds.
The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably.

Crater Dimensions:

What does this mean?


Transient Crater Diameter: 194 km ( = 120 miles )
Transient Crater Depth: 68.6 km ( = 42.6 miles )

Final Crater Diameter: 387 km ( = 240 miles )
Final Crater Depth: 1.78 km ( = 1.1 miles )
The crater formed is a complex crater.
The volume of the target melted or vaporized is 103000 km3 = 24700 miles3
Roughly half the melt remains in the crater, where its average thickness is 3.48 km ( = 2.16 miles ).

Thermal Radiation:

What does this mean?


Time for maximum radiation: 16.5 seconds after impact

Visible fireball radius: 416 km ( = 258 miles )
The fireball appears 94.5 times larger than the sun
Thermal Exposure: 5.75 x 109 Joules/m2
Duration of Irradiation: 1.78 hours
Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 896

Effects of Thermal Radiation:

Seismic Effects:

What does this mean?


The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 3.33 minutes after impact.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 11.0 (This is greater than any earthquake in recorded history)
Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 1000 km:


Ejecta:

What does this mean?


The ejecta will arrive approximately 8.24 minutes after the impact.
At your position there is a fine dusting of ejecta with occasional larger fragments
Average Ejecta Thickness: 12.6 meters ( = 41.4 feet )
Mean Fragment Diameter: 6.1 mm ( = 2.4 tenths of an inch )

Air Blast:

What does this mean?


The air blast will arrive approximately 50.5 minutes after impact.
Peak Overpressure: 1.82e+06 Pa = 18.2 bars = 259 psi
Max wind velocity: 1050 m/s = 2360 mph
Sound Intensity: 125 dB (Dangerously Loud)
Damage Description:


Tell me more...

Click here for a pdf document that details the observations, assumptions, and equations upon which this program is based. It describes our approach to quantifying the important impact processes that might affect the people, buildings, and landscape in the vicinity of an impact event and discusses the uncertainty in our predictions. The processes included are: atmospheric entry, impact crater formation, fireball expansion and thermal radiation, ejecta deposition, seismic shaking, and the propagation of the atmospheric blast wave.

Recent improvements in the airblast calculation are described here.






Earth Impact Effects Program Copyright 2004, Robert Marcus, H.J. Melosh, and G.S. Collins
These results come with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY