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Forgotten Heroes
Nov. 11, 2009
The day the earth almost died....
Over the last century, and especially recently, countless people have predicted that the world is going to end due to some catastrophe. Some predicted aliens; some prophesied that overpopulation would lead to massive incurable famines; still others proclaimed that the end would come by disease, permenant submersion of all habitable land, a super volcano, an experimental accident, global warming, a nearby supernova, superintelligent computers, or grey goo nano-technology that would dominate the universe. All these scenarios have been seriously put forward, but few as much as one: that earth will be hit and destroyed by a giant asteroid.
Now serious people usually brush off all these scenarios off, calling them "alarmist" and "apocolyptic." Those who trust in science say that man could ward off any of these threats that might actually be possible. For example they say: 'We can detect astroids years before they come near earth and a well guided missle sent from earth could end an asteroid's life far out in space.'
Well, theses people sound much more credible and believable. And they are, but neither side has things completely right as was proved this past week.
Science was proved faulty last Friday when an asteroid nearly struck earth and was not detected until 15 hours before it made its closest approach. (Click here for article). Fortunately, the asteroid was only 23 feet in diameter, and would have been much reduced in size by the time it hit earth. Still, it could have exploded in the atmosphere and caused severe damage.
Several historical events show the damage that can be done even by small asteroids or meteors:
1. In prehistoric times a 54 yard long meteor hit in what's now Arizona. It caused a 4,000 ft long crater that is 570 ft deep. See the picture below.
2. In 1490, in China, historical documents tell of 10,000 people being slain by "falling stones." Astronomers believe these "stones" to have been the result of an asteroid that exploded in the atmosphere.
3. The most recent impact catastrophe was the Tunguska Event in Russia in 1908, when a 4-6 mile wide meteor blew up in the atmosphere directly impacting 830 sq miles.
Fortunately it happened above an empty part of Siberia populated only by extensive evergreen forests. The damage was still tremendous. The explosion was 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, and produced the effect of a level 5 earthquake.
There are many eyewitness accounts from Tungus villagers and Russian settlers living many hundreds of miles away on the shores of Lake Baikal. They report seeing a massive blue column, as bright as the sun, descend from the sky and immediately after, a massive explosion that knocked people off their feet, broke all the windows, and severely damaged crops.
This was all hundreds and hundreds of miles away. The influence of the explosion was felt even in Europe. There was no night in either Europe or Asia for several days afterward due to the explosion. People in London could read their newspapers at night in its light. It was generally assumed to be the beginning of the end of the world.
In Siberia itself, where the explosion actually happened, a new lake was created 80 million trees were felled as seen in the picture below.
If that asteroid on Friday had hit earth and if it had been as big as the Tunguska asteroid, our world would be drastically changed. And scientists didn't even see it coming until hours before the event. If an asteroid like Tunguska hit the US, China, or Europe, the world as we know it would truly have been at an end.
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Dunvegan Highlander 
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