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: 5.00 km ( = 3.11 miles )
Projectile diameter: 45.00 meters ( = 148.00 feet )
Projectile Density: 8000 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 51.00 km per second ( = 31.70 miles per second )
Impact Angle: 45 degrees
Target Density: 2500 kg/m3
Target Type: Sedimentary Rock

Energy:

Energy before atmospheric entry: 4.96 x 1017 Joules = 1.19 x 102 MegaTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 4.3 x 103years

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).
The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably.

Atmospheric Entry:

The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 31800 meters = 104000 ft
The projectile reaches the ground in a broken condition. The mass of projectile strikes the surface at velocity 17.9 km/s = 11.1 miles/s
The energy lost in the atmosphere is 4.35 x 1017 Joules = 1.04 x 102 MegaTons.
The impact energy is 6.11 x 1016 Joules = 1.46 x 101MegaTons.
The larger of these two energies is used to estimate the airblast damage.
The broken projectile fragments strike the ground in an ellipse of dimension 0.441 km by 0.312 km

Crater Dimensions:

What does this mean?


Crater shape is normal in spite of atmospheric crushing; fragments are not significantly dispersed.

Transient Crater Diameter: 1.34 km ( = 0.83 miles )
Transient Crater Depth: 472 meters ( = 1550 feet )

Final Crater Diameter: 1.67 km ( = 1.04 miles )
Final Crater Depth: 355 meters ( = 1170 feet )
The crater formed is a simple crater

The floor of the crater is underlain by a lens of broken rock debris (breccia) with a maximum thickness of 165 meters ( = 541 feet ).
The volume of the target melted or vaporized is 385000 m3 = 1.36e+07 feet3
Roughly half the melt remains in the crater

Thermal Radiation:

What does this mean?


Time for maximum radiation: 44 milliseconds after impact

Visible fireball radius: 786 meters ( = 2580 feet )
The fireball appears 35.7 times larger than the sun
Thermal Exposure: 1.16 x 106 Joules/m2
Duration of Irradiation: 10.2 seconds
Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 114

Effects of Thermal Radiation:

Seismic Effects:

What does this mean?


The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 1 seconds after impact.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 5.4
Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 5 km:


Ejecta:

What does this mean?


Most ejecta is blocked by Earth's atmosphere

Air Blast:

What does this mean?


The air blast will arrive approximately 15.2 seconds after impact.
Peak Overpressure: 617000 Pa = 6.17 bars = 87.6 psi
Max wind velocity: 580 m/s = 1300 mph
Sound Intensity: 116 dB (May cause ear pain)
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