HAVING A "BAD" DAY?

(Image: Don Davis/NASA)

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go your way. You just can not seem to get going. I am sure that we all have at one point in our life. Well, I hope I can help. I can assure you that things could be worse. I will have you put yourself in the place of someone else or time for a few moments and perhaps this will help you when you are having a bad day.

Imagine you are some creature (you get to chose what you want to be, Tyrannosaurus Rex is a good choice),

(Artwork by Publiphoto/Photo Researchers, Inc.)


or pre-human living (I will let you chose this for imaginations sake. Pretend you went back in time) on Earth near the end of the Cretaceous period, nearly 65 million years ago. You are going on with your day, hunting for food (prehistoric grocery shopping), sending the offspring off to history class (Jurassic Period 1010), or getting ready for work at the angiosperm nursery or Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta farm (it is your imagination call it what you want). It is a clear warm day (duh! it's the Cretaceous, only about 18 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than current temperatures) and things are going pretty well for you and you family. It is very easy to breath the air that is very rich with oxygen, some 150% more than modern levels, and there is a good global warming on right now (some 6 times pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide SWEET!), life could not be any better. You are strolling along with you significant other, claw in claw, or hand in hand, depending on your evolutionary progress, along the beach the warm waters near the the swamps of what is modern day eastern Utah.



(Image: Unite States Geological Survey, http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/continents/cretaceous.jpg)

You are gazing across the warm shallow seas(modern day Colorado/Kansas) toward the east in hopes of a magnificent sunrise. Suddenly, to your surprise you see an asteroid around 10 km (6 mi) in diameter heading to Earth (better look fast).

(Image: Joe Tucciarone, http://www.dinosaurfact.net/Cretaceous.php)

Within seconds this impacts Earth near the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico and releases 400 zettajoules of energy, Yes! this is a lot. This is 2 million times more powerful than the most powerful man-made explosive device ever detonated, the Tsar Bomba (dang Soviet Union, you just had to be bigger huh!), this was only, only, 50 megatons (weak! well, not really). Okay, so now what do you do? Run? Perhaps. Cry? Perhaps. Dig a hole? this would be best (lucky subterranial creatures, you moved on). Whatever you do, you are about to have the worst day ever. No matter where you are on Earth, you are in for a very bad day. The impact would have caused some of the largest megatsunamis in the world (sorry Indonesia, you ain't got jack!), reaching over thousands of feet high. A cloud of super-heated dust, ash and steam would have spread from the crater, as the impactor burrowed underground in less than a second. Excavated material along with pieces of the impactor, ejected out of the atmosphere by the blast, would have been heated to incandescence upon re-entry, broiling the Earth's surface and possibly igniting global wildfires; meanwhile, enormous shock waves spawned global earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The emission of dust and particles could have covered the entire surface of the Earth for several years, possibly a decade, creating a harsh environment for living things to survive in. The shock production of carbon dioxide caused by the destruction of carbonate rocks would have led to a dramatic greenhouse effect. Another consequence of the impact is that sunlight would have been blocked from reaching the surface of the earth by the dust particles in the atmosphere, cooling the surface dramatically (BRRRR, and I thought Utah was cold). Photosynthesis by plants would also have been interrupted (no more salads), affecting the entire food chain. As you can see, not a good day.

So, I hope that I have helped anyone that might have been going through a hard day. Think about it! Things could always be worse. Try to look at the brighter side of things, unless the brighter side is an asteroid! Have a Great Day! Things are pretty good on Earth right now.

Oh! And by the way. We could have and event happen similar to this, but not on such a grand scale, happen off the coast of California in the year 2036. Stay tuned! Can you say,

"APOPHIS!"

(Image: Science Photo Library)

Could this be another story? Think About It!