It’s a very real fear - an asteroid hurtling through our solar system, avoiding the protective
gravitational tug of our best friend Jupiter - and revving up like a Super-Saiyan Goku
right through our atmosphere before plummeting straight into the deep blue sea - BOOM, hellfire
and pain and 90% of the Earth’s population snuffed out from existence.
It happened to the dinosaurs, heck - it probably happened a few times after that too.
Our society is obsessed with the thought of an Extinction-Level Asteroid Event - or, well,
the Hollywood heroic avoidance of one.
Armageddon, Deep Impact - and a million other B-Movies that paint the picture of a post-apocalyptic
post-asteroid society.
Well, what would that world look like?
How would the few survivors maintain their fragile existence?
Well - let’s find out, shall we?
Hello internet - and welcome back to the most inquisitive channel on YouTube - Life’s
Biggest Questions.
As always, I’ll be your disembodied floating voice - as we look to the skies, shield our
eyes from the brilliantly bright blinding light - and curiously ask the question, What
If An Asteroid Destroyed 90% Of Earth?
Now before we approach the latter half of this question, we have to first paint the
picture of the initial asteroid impact event.
The actual devastation caused depends on quite a few factors, such as the size, speed, angle
- and landing point of the cosmic destroyer.
If it’s 10 feet across - in all likelihood it would skip across the atmosphere like a
far flung skimming stone and burst into a pretty little fireworks explosion in the sky.
100 feet across - and people start getting a little twitchy - and it would cause a massive
explosion like the one witnessed at Tunguska in Russia on the morning of June 30th 1908.
If it’s a quarter mile wide - it would take out an entire region roughly the size of Virginia
- and the subsequent fallout would be a game-changer for how our civilization develops into the
future.
And if it’s 10 kilometres wide - then we’re all pretty boned, and the ones who are initially
vaporized by the global impact are the lucky ones.
And that’s the asteroid that we’d be looking at to answer this question - likely being
flung out from the Oort Cloud - a thick bubble of icy debris that surrounds our solar system.
An extinction level event.
The end of all things.
The big - rocky herald of the likely goodbye of humanity.
Bye!
At 10 kilometres wide, the asteroid would travel at around 30 kilometers per second
- which is roughly 90 times the speed of sound.
Unlike smaller meteors - an asteroid that size would be unstoppable - and have no semblance
of slowing down as it travels through our atmosphere.
It would punch through in less than three seconds like it’s not even there - like
a hot knife through butter and all other synonyms that relate to things passing through things
with ease.
Err - like a perturbed ghost through a wood-paneled wall.
You get the picture.
Either way - when it hits the surface - it would hit so hard that it wouldn’t even
matter where the point of impact occurred.
Land or sea - it’s not good guys.
Most people within a one hundred mile radius would either drop dead from the initial concussion
of the compression wave - or, perhaps even more likely - be completely vaporized by the
wave of destruction and devastation.
And you know what?
That’s possibly the most comforting end - they’re the lucky ones - because they
would most likely never even know what hit them.
Because what would remain would be a world much worse than The Road, Mad Max and The
Walking Dead combined.
There would be nothing left.
It would be the literal definition of a wasteland - and the 10% of Earth’s remaining population
are in for a pretty tough remainder of their fragile lives.
The energy of the impact would likely vaporize a large amount of the Earth’s crust - throwing
all of the subsequent ejecta into the air - unleashing devastating winds across the
planet, filled with debris and rock and destruction that could reach more than a thousand miles
an hour.
Umbrellas ain’t gonna save us this time.
Unimaginable earthquakes would follow - shaking the planet to it’s very core and likely
bringing ruin to our most iconic cities on a global scale.
The ejecta would continue through to the atmosphere - heating it up to temperatures possibly near
900 degrees - AKA - that sweet sweet melting point that turns lead to liquid.
It would trigger global forest fires - and likely cook anyone and anything not sheltered
deep underground.
But - 10% of Earth’s population is roughly 750 million people.
And, well - that’s a lot of survivors to throw into this equation.
And a lot of people who were smart, concise - and lucky enough to get shipped into a deep,
underground bunker - to shield them from the years of destruction waging its way across
our fair planet.
Essentially, it would be the plot of 1998’s Deep Impact.
But what we’re concerned with are the years that would follow - IF, of course, our underground
safety bunkers did their job - and we didn’t succumb to chaos and mutiny inside, killing
each other in a frantic post-apocalyptic existential panic - I’m looking at you Vault 19.
The combination of dust, debris and soot from the ejecta’s influence would remain in the
atmosphere for several years - blocking out the Sun - and without the glorious power of
our Solar Overlord - PRAISE THE SUN - the vast majority of Earth’s plant life would
die, and as a result, the entire food chain would collapse.
So, we better hope that our bunkers are stocked with some highly resourceful agricultural
technology - because we wouldn’t be growing anything out in the open for quite some time.
Also - pizza is probably off the menu - and don’t even get me started on what a bleak
existence that would be.
But - and as always, this is a very big but - there is hope for us all.
Humanity is a very resilient species - it’s the reason that we are who we are, and the
reason that we’ve managed to clamber through the primordial soup and build colossal monuments
into the sky.
A survivor population of 750 million would bring us roughly back to the global population
of the 1600s - a time where humanity was shaking off the shackles of feudalism and stepping
out into a brave new world.
With the same population, we’d essentially be given a fresh start - once a decade or
so had passed, and the planet had began rejuvenating its delicate yet resilient ecosystem.
However - this time, the survivors would have the foresight that humanity’s future is
fragile - because they’ve seen the consequences, they’ve lived through them - and the fear
of a similar man made catastrophe would become the benchmark that would rebuilt our civilization
upon.
Unfortunately for them, the dinosaurs never had a second chance - but maybe we would.
Well - there we have it folks, why don’t you let us know your thoughts in the comment
box down below.
Before we depart, let’s take a look at some of your more creative comments from over the
past few days.
Malik Jones says -- Hi Danny Burke sorry if I spelled your name wrong.
-- and hey Malik Jones - no worries buddy, it’s spelled J-A-C-K F-I-N-C-H.
I know, no worries - it’s a tough one.
Super Franky says -- OLD MUSIC WAS BETTER -- but, on the flip side to that -- phugwellsmind
says -- New music?
About time.
-- So, I guess the struggle continues - and it remains the same that you can’t please
everyone, right?
Well, unfortunately that’s all we’ve got time for in today’s video - cheers for sticking
around all the way till the end.
If you were a fan of this video, make sure to hit that thumbs up button, as well as that
subscribe bell - and we’ll be seeing you in the next one.
As always, I’ve been your disembodied floating voice Jack Finch - you’ve been watching
Life’s Biggest Questions - and until next time, you take it easy.