DBWI:What if the meteor of 1908 hadn't occured?

What if that meteor in 1908 hadn't impacted into the US midwest, thereby devastating much of the American heartland? The funny thing is, if it had approached Earth from a slightly different angle it would have more likely hit somewhere in Siberia, apparently.
 
I'd honestly say that the Midwest would be poorer than it is today. The devastation caused to the great plains sparked at that time, the largest civil works project in American history. New modern infrastructure was built all throughout the region, new settlers culled from Europe and the South, principles of scientific farming were introduced, land reclamation programs were enacted, and factories were expanded from Chicago to Buffalo in order to make new machine tools, rail ties, and farming equipment. It was Roosevelt's finest moment, and his justification for serving a third presidential term.
 
OOC. Its Tunguska, its around 10 or 20 megatons. Enough to vape a city, nowhere near whats needed to "destroy American heartland". I really want people to start having a clue about what they talk about when it comes to big and small asteroids or SF space ship firepower.

Its just like when some newspaper or "science" show goes telling something is ten thousand times the firepower of Hiroshima bomb. They present it as world ending threat. :eek:
10,000 Little Boys. Or around 150 megatons and some 3 times stronger than largest nuke ever tested, and I think I would have noticed if world has been destroyed.

Same with meteors. To current data, things that result in kiloton level blast are smallest that will produce any actuall result, and even then blast is almost always high in atmosphere with little effect on the ground. Tunguska object was likely 10 to couple dozen meters in diameter and produced blast in 10-15 megaton range. (Though around 20km high in the air). Dino killer was couple kilometers in diameter and AFAIK produced a blast in range of 50 teratons. 50 thousand gigatons or 50 million megatons. Now thats big and dangerouns.
 
OOC. Its Tunguska, its around 10 or 20 megatons. Enough to vape a city, nowhere near whats needed to "destroy American heartland". I really want people to start having a clue about what they talk about when it comes to big and small asteroids or SF space ship firepower.

Its just like when some newspaper or "science" show goes telling something is ten thousand times the firepower of Hiroshima bomb. They present it as world ending threat. :eek:
10,000 Little Boys. Or around 150 megatons and some 3 times stronger than largest nuke ever tested, and I think I would have noticed if world has been destroyed.

Same with meteors. To current data, things that result in kiloton level blast are smallest that will produce any actuall result, and even then blast is almost always high in atmosphere with little effect on the ground. Tunguska object was likely 10 to couple dozen meters in diameter and produced blast in 10-15 megaton range. (Though around 20km high in the air). Dino killer was couple kilometers in diameter and AFAIK produced a blast in range of 50 teratons. 50 thousand gigatons or 50 million megatons. Now thats big and dangerouns.

Five words:This meteor is different than OTL. :p
 
Well, at a slightly different angle of atmospheric re-entry, Tunguska might have made it to the ground, then again, maybe not
 
Well, at a slightly different angle of atmospheric re-entry, Tunguska might have made it to the ground, then again, maybe not

Irrelevant, total kinetic energy object has, aka total kinetic and thermal energy object delivers remains the same no matter where it hits. Sure, say 20 megatons hitting somewhere important is going to flatten up to dozens of miles in every direction.
 
I meant that if it had come in at a different angle relative to the ground it may not have exploded in mid air but made it to the ground.
 
IT IS IRRELEVANT. (and Sparta too)

OK, asteroid has a mass and speed. Once it hits atmosphere and it doesn't bounce off back into space (possible with shallow angles) it will transfer all its energy to surrounding in forms of kinetic and thermal energy.

Sure, a angle closer to 90 degrees means shorter path and less energy lost to passing trough atmosphere (although Tunguska exploded pretty high, AKA it didn't lose that much energy), but I dont think you can get more than 20 or 30 megatons top end from something of that size and speed.

To achieve effects of the OP you would need a much larger and/or faster impactor. A guesstimate would be something in gigaton order of energy.
 
You want serious damage in the American midwest from a body as powerful as OT's Tunguska?

Have it hit in Lake Michigan. Ten metre-plus tsunamis around all the coast.
 
You want serious damage in the American midwest from a body as powerful as OT's Tunguska?

Have it hit in Lake Michigan. Ten metre-plus tsunamis around all the coast.


That's clever thinking. Decide Tunguska was a solid iron meteorite and that it hit at close to 90 degrees, it might work.
 
Hit the American midwest with a second meteor/comet a second time? Wasn't the destruction of Chicago in 1871 and portions of the Great Lakes region enough?
 
I think the earth was lucky to get a direct impact...

if it scraped the surface it would have caused a lot of dust, possibly another ice age.
 
OOC: Physics is dead; long live Physics.

This is not a serious thread, certainly there is nearly no chance of this happening.

Even a Gigaton impact in the Midwest would be something like the size of Ohio--still very short of wiping out the entire region. However, let's kill this idea with more style than that.

IC: I'm thinking the destruction of Sol-3, by its satellite, "Luna" crashing into what was then known as the Midwest, was probably the work of malevolent xenos. The collision of an object the size of the "United States" with the "United States" cauterized all life on the planet, boiled the planets oceans and ejected two chunks that are the size of Dwarf Planets in their own right!

Expert observers of the Sol System insist that a large bat-like creature was someone manuevering in space away from the scene. This creature had apparently been tormenting the inhabitants of Sol-3 for some time, and decided that it would be enjoyable to glass their planet, so it did.
 
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