Fictional Earthbound Asteroid Collision

[Sporkitude]

Hello all,

New to posting, but I've lurked the forums here for awhile. And I feel like there is some odd coincidence of me posting right after another fellow decided to ask about a fictional near Earth collision. I'm a filmmaker, writer, and artist. I'm currently working on a comic book series about an apocalypse that occurs well, a few months ago.

Let me first explain the situation I'm looking to create. I'm wanting an asteroid to collide with the Earth, simple enough, I know. I'm looking for a plausible location for impact that wouldn't kill off the planet. I don't want humans to go extinct or really any life for that matter. Just a large enough catastrophic event to cause some chaos.

I'm also looking to see what size that asteroid would have to be, the speed it'd be traveling, etc.

Now, my thoughts on the matter. (I'm nowhere near an expert on anything of the sort, hence why I'm here.) I was thinking a collision into the Pacific that would send some tidal waves crashing into the entire US West coast, destroying most of Japan (if not all of it), and really messing up some stuff in that entire hemisphere.

Since it would be colliding with the ocean, would there still be dust and such thrown up into the atmosphere? And if there is anything going into the air, would it circulate the globe? This is a scenario I would like to happen, but only if for a short time.

And what would this look like coming into the atmosphere? Are there any good sources for people who have created images, film, digital, or otherwise, that look realistic enough to base my work off of?

I'm really doing this so I have my *** covered when people start looking at the math behind the collision I'm creating. I don't want something entirely unrealistic to occur. Y'know, besides this whole scenario.

Thanks for everything. And when I get a few more sheets done, I'll definitely post some if any of you are interested.

Take it easy.

 

[Groggen]

And I feel like there is some odd coincidence of me posting right after another fellow decided to ask about a fictional near Earth collision.

Coincidentally, that very same person has an answer for you. :D I found some websites discussing this already. And links to online calculators that will calculate the effects of impacts based on the size and speed of the asteroid.

http://www.astronomynotes.com/solfluf/s5.htm

The links to the calculators are in the last paragraph on that page.

 

[DennisN]

A small link mix for our two horsemen of the apocalypse, digest it as you wish ;

• Atomic Rockets (various SF stuff, mostly SF propulsion); engines, torchships.
  
• Speculative fiction on tvtropes.
• Recent thread on this forum about SF propulsion (the poster was asking about faster-than-light, but other things were discussed there too).

For your apocalyptic tastes, I recommend checking out the following:

• Potentially hazardous object (Wiki)
  

  "Findings indicate there are roughly 4,700 PHAs, plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters). So far, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of these objects have been found." http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-138

• Near-Earth Object Program (NASA)
• Near-Earth object (Wiki)
• Asteroid impact avoidance (Wiki)

(I actually read a pretty good article about asteroid deflection a while ago, with physics and math, but I don't remember the link ).