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Many reading here are likely familiar with the claim that it likely was a small asteroid impacting Earth about 65 million years ago that produced the Extinction Level Event (E.L.E.) that resulted in the dinosaurs (and many other lifeforms) becoming footnotes in geological history. It's been suggested that other E.L.E.s in the fossil record might also have been instigated by an impact event, so this thread topic is one of on-going significance to planetary history, IMO.
In my Opening Post here I provided the following link;
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/
from which I'll present this QUOTE:
This resource, which began in 1994, is offered as a public service. Though other themes are touched upon, the site is primarily focused on understanding the social and physical influence of a once highly-visible large-comet, in a short-period Earth-threatening orbit. This object, according to astronomical evidence, has been progressively breaking up since the Holocene time period began. The result of such debris scattering was to increase the likelihood of Earth's climate being affected by periodic interaction with extraterrestrial material during this most recent time period.
The subject is fascinating and demonstrably essential to an accurate understanding of our species' behavior over the past 12,000 or so years. Some familiarity with this topic will be seen as necessary by students of anthropology, archeology, classics, and religion who peruse this material objectively. The topic also has philosophic and social policy aspects that need to be explored. As the first species on Earth with the capacity to prevent impact events that would otherwise affect biological evolution--What is our responsibility and what is a prudent course of action?
A recent event connected with the Taurid Stream would be the Tunguska Event or Tunguska Blast of June 30, 1908;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
QUOTE:
The Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m. KRAT (0:14 UT) on June 30 [O.S. June 17], 1908.[1][2][3][3]
The explosion is believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3–6 mi) above the Earth's surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of metres across.[4]
The number of scholarly publications on the problem of the Tunguska explosion since 1908 may be estimated at about 1,000 (mainly in Russian). Many scientists have participated in Tunguska studies, the best-known of them being Leonid Kulik, Yevgeny Krinov, Kirill Florensky, Nikolai Vladimirovich Vasiliev and Wilhelm Fast.[5]
Although the meteoroid or comet burst in the air rather than hitting the surface, this event is still referred to as an impact. Estimates of the energy of the blast range from 5 to as high as 30 megatons of TNT (21–130 PJ),[6][7] with 10–15 megatons of TNT (42–63 PJ) the most likely[7]—roughly equal to the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb tested on March 1, 1954, about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and about one-third the power of the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated.[8] The explosion knocked over an estimated 80 million trees covering 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi). It is estimated that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. An explosion of this magnitude is capable of destroying a large metropolitan area.[9] This possibility has helped to spark discussion of asteroid deflection strategies.
The Tunguska event is the largest impact event over land in Earth's recent history.[10] Impacts of similar size over remote ocean areas would most likely have gone unnoticed[citation needed][dubious – discuss][11] before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Had this occurred a few hours later it would have been over northern Europe and the scale of destruction likely even greater. One can't help but wonder the effect upon the Great War six years later had such an "alternative timeline" event occurred. One also has to wonder the reaction in current times when such a natural event might be thought the use of nuclear device, especially were another such to occur over a populated area/major Nation.
The Tunguska event occurred when the stream is coming at Earth from the direction of the Sun, hence making astronomical observation and warning, back then, near impossible. We've a slightly improved situation today, given some of the sats and observatories in use, but from from a "failsafe" situation. The first two weeks of November are when we'll next transit the Stream, this will be visible at night and likely increase the average number of meteors seen if the skies are clear.
Another event likely related to the Taurid Stream is the source of the Carolina Bays which may have coincided with the end of the last "Ice Age" and attendant species extinctions then. I'll get to that one later. It's dry outside and I've a few hours of daylight left to attend some yard and shed-building activities.
In my Opening Post here I provided the following link;
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/
from which I'll present this QUOTE:
This resource, which began in 1994, is offered as a public service. Though other themes are touched upon, the site is primarily focused on understanding the social and physical influence of a once highly-visible large-comet, in a short-period Earth-threatening orbit. This object, according to astronomical evidence, has been progressively breaking up since the Holocene time period began. The result of such debris scattering was to increase the likelihood of Earth's climate being affected by periodic interaction with extraterrestrial material during this most recent time period.
The subject is fascinating and demonstrably essential to an accurate understanding of our species' behavior over the past 12,000 or so years. Some familiarity with this topic will be seen as necessary by students of anthropology, archeology, classics, and religion who peruse this material objectively. The topic also has philosophic and social policy aspects that need to be explored. As the first species on Earth with the capacity to prevent impact events that would otherwise affect biological evolution--What is our responsibility and what is a prudent course of action?
A recent event connected with the Taurid Stream would be the Tunguska Event or Tunguska Blast of June 30, 1908;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
QUOTE:
The Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m. KRAT (0:14 UT) on June 30 [O.S. June 17], 1908.[1][2][3][3]
The explosion is believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3–6 mi) above the Earth's surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of metres across.[4]
The number of scholarly publications on the problem of the Tunguska explosion since 1908 may be estimated at about 1,000 (mainly in Russian). Many scientists have participated in Tunguska studies, the best-known of them being Leonid Kulik, Yevgeny Krinov, Kirill Florensky, Nikolai Vladimirovich Vasiliev and Wilhelm Fast.[5]
Although the meteoroid or comet burst in the air rather than hitting the surface, this event is still referred to as an impact. Estimates of the energy of the blast range from 5 to as high as 30 megatons of TNT (21–130 PJ),[6][7] with 10–15 megatons of TNT (42–63 PJ) the most likely[7]—roughly equal to the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb tested on March 1, 1954, about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and about one-third the power of the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated.[8] The explosion knocked over an estimated 80 million trees covering 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi). It is estimated that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. An explosion of this magnitude is capable of destroying a large metropolitan area.[9] This possibility has helped to spark discussion of asteroid deflection strategies.
The Tunguska event is the largest impact event over land in Earth's recent history.[10] Impacts of similar size over remote ocean areas would most likely have gone unnoticed[citation needed][dubious – discuss][11] before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Had this occurred a few hours later it would have been over northern Europe and the scale of destruction likely even greater. One can't help but wonder the effect upon the Great War six years later had such an "alternative timeline" event occurred. One also has to wonder the reaction in current times when such a natural event might be thought the use of nuclear device, especially were another such to occur over a populated area/major Nation.
The Tunguska event occurred when the stream is coming at Earth from the direction of the Sun, hence making astronomical observation and warning, back then, near impossible. We've a slightly improved situation today, given some of the sats and observatories in use, but from from a "failsafe" situation. The first two weeks of November are when we'll next transit the Stream, this will be visible at night and likely increase the average number of meteors seen if the skies are clear.
Another event likely related to the Taurid Stream is the source of the Carolina Bays which may have coincided with the end of the last "Ice Age" and attendant species extinctions then. I'll get to that one later. It's dry outside and I've a few hours of daylight left to attend some yard and shed-building activities.
Intriguing how they managed also to "quick-freeze" some of their victims.
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