Re: Giant Impact Near India -- Not Mexico -- May Have Doomed Dinosaurs

[kimba4evr@aol.com]

When the Shoemaker-Levy 9 asteroid struck Jupiter, prior to impact the 
asteroid broke apart, causing several impacts.  So isn't it possible 
that the asteroid from the K/T impact here broke apart causing both 
this impact and the Chicxulub impact, and possibly several other yet 
unfound locations?

Donna




-----Original Message-----
From: evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Fri, Oct 16, 2009 2:29 am
Subject: RE: Giant Impact Near India -- Not Mexico -- May Have Doomed 
Dinosaurs



> >>> Who would have thought it? Two giant asteroids
> hitting the planet at
> > the same time. What are the odds?
> >
> > That is an excellent question.
>
> More like "close in time"...?

Actually, "at nearly the same time" is far more likely than "close in 
time"..

What comes down are unspecified bolides. What they were *in outer 
space* - a
comet, several asteroids, or a single asteroid that later broke up - is 
not that
important.

And indeed, the odds of two extraterrestrial bodies impacting in short
succession are really really low since about as long as Earth had a 
solid
crust.. The odds of an asteroid (especially one of uneven shape) above 
a certain
size causing, within 24 hours or so, *more* than one chunk large enough 
to cause
mass destruction to impact are about 1, however.

----

"General Rex, incoming asteroid!"

"Great. Now it's the time to show those allocaudatans what 
ReptileTech[TM] can
achieve! Man the Kansan Ocean Ion Blaster and get it on-line, Commander 
Raptor!"


....

"General Rex?"

"What?"

"We hit it!"

"Great! Another triumph for Rep- wait, why the droopy talon?"

"Well... we *hit* it. But we didn't exactly *destroy* it. Though as a
*monolithic* entity, we did indeed destroy it..."

"By the tetanic tail of _Torvosaurus_! The Eromanga Sea Ion Blaster ist 
still
under construction!"

"With all due respect, it wouldn't be enough."

"How many fragments?"

"Four and counting."

"We're doomed, Commander Raptor... we're doomed."

"Our calculations show that the toothless handless mutants down in the 
south
continent will stand a chance to survive."

"Oh how *great*. What a future - life raising from the ashes, only to 
moult all
over the floor... Who's gonna clean up after them? As if it weren't bad 
enough
that these rascals can already drop their droppings on our heads with 
impun-"

And thus endeth the Mesozoic.


Regards,

Eike