Backstory Help: Asteroid Collision in California

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the backstory of a fictional asteroid collision in Southern California, exploring the potential size, speed, and force of an asteroid needed to create a massive crater and the resulting effects on the region. Participants consider the implications of such an event on habitability, ecological recovery, and economic consequences.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants inquire about the size, speed, and force required to generate a crater larger than the Chicxulub crater, suggesting it would lead to a global extinction event.
  • Others question how large an event would need to be to make Southern California uninhabitable while still allowing life to continue elsewhere.
  • A participant suggests that making an area uninhabited is possible, but not uninhabitable, as life can return once conditions stabilize.
  • There are proposals to have the meteor trigger significant geological events, such as "The Big One," to creatively alter the landscape without affecting distant regions.
  • Some participants reference economic factors, arguing that the destruction of major cities in California would have profound impacts on the US economy and resettlement efforts.
  • Comparisons are made to historical events, such as the eruption of Mt. St. Helens and the Barringer Crater, to illustrate potential ecological recovery and human habitation challenges post-catastrophe.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views, with no consensus on the specifics of the asteroid's impact or the feasibility of making Southern California uninhabitable while allowing life to persist elsewhere. The discussion remains unresolved with competing ideas about ecological and economic implications.

Contextual Notes

Participants note limitations in their assumptions about the ecological recovery timeline and the economic ramifications of such a catastrophic event. The discussion reflects a variety of perspectives on the interplay between environmental and human factors following a major disaster.

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I am currently working on the backstory to a story I'm writing as a means of world-building. However, I'm not quite as physics-literate as everyone else, so rather than winging it and coming off like an idiot, I came here.

http://sta.sh/0126svntmin
Exhibit A. The red marks the range of the crater, the black dot is ground zero.

Southern California was destroyed several decades before the story proper. The cataclysmic Salton Sea Event wiped out various cities, reaching into Nevada and Arizona. The Baja California peninsula was also separated from the land, becoming an island through the formation of the Gulf of California.

The official report claims an asteroid did this.
What size, speed, and amount of force would be enough to generate a crater that large?
What sort of effects would the blast have on the region? I can be certain about wildfires and Las Vegas would be affected by the aftershock.
 
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Author_X said:
http://sta.sh/0126svntmin
Exhibit A. The red marks the range of the crater, the black dot is ground zero.

What size, speed, and amount of force would be enough to generate a crater that large?
What sort of effects would the blast have on the region? I can be certain about wildfires and Las Vegas would be affected by the aftershock.
This crater is larger than the Chicxulub crater - you'd have a global extinction event more severe than the one that killed the dinosaurs.
 
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Bandersnatch said:
This crater is larger than the Chicxulub crater - you'd have a global extinction event more severe than the one that killed the dinosaurs.

How big would an event have to be to render southern California uninhabitable, but still allow life (including humanity) to continue?
 
Bandersnatch said:
This crater is larger than the Chicxulub crater - you'd have a global extinction event more severe than the one that killed the dinosaurs.
Some people just want to watch the world burn. :-p
 
Author_X said:
How big would an event have to be to render southern California uninhabitable, but still allow life (including humanity) to continue?

Well, many of us feel that Southern California is unfit to live in even today.

I don't think what you want is possible. You can make an area uninhabitED but not uninhabitABLE. Once the fires have gone out, nothing really prevents life from moving back in.
 
Vanadium 50 said:
I don't think what you want is possible. You can make an area uninhabitED but not uninhabitABLE. Once the fires have gone out, nothing really prevents life from moving back in.
A large crater filled with sea water should work. But that would have global consequences.
 
How about having the meteor trigger The Big One? Then you could rearrange the landscape creatively without wiping out life in Maine.
 
Also, read Footfall, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Be ready to defend your work in regard to this book.
 
  • #10
Vanadium 50 said:
Well, many of us feel that Southern California is unfit to live in even today.

I don't think what you want is possible. You can make an area uninhabitED but not uninhabitABLE. Once the fires have gone out, nothing really prevents life from moving back in.

True but in terms of human resettlement there are political and economical factors at play. California is a big place but if an asteroid, bomb or whatever wiped out some of the major cities the US (and by extention the world) economy would nose dive. California is so rich that were it its own nation (ignoring the economic consequence of leaving the USA) it would be the 5th or 6th richest country in the world.

OP I'd advise you look down this route. If you look up richest cities in California and play with the impact calculator posted by Bandersnatch you might find that you could hit enough to wipe out trillions of dollars of GDP.

Such a massive shrinkage of the US economy, not to mention the expense of rehousing the survivors, could push back resettlement by decades or even longer. You say "official story" as though there's a conspiracy in your novel, if so this works in tidily. The "party line" could be that California will be rebuilt once the economy recovered (which could take quite a while). Meanwhile politicians kick that promise down the curb and only the die hard Californians (numbering less and less as the refugees integrate into other states) and economic idealists rave about how the US could rebuilt if it wanted too.
 
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  • #11
36 years after Mt. St. Helens exploded, how many people live in the area where the people present in 1980 died?
No infrastructure. Coarse soils of rubble. Poor vegetation.

Compare Barringer Crater. Estimated at 10 MT.
The crest of the crater rim is about 600 m radius. But the present height of the crater rim is 45 m above the surrounding plains - and before erosion, say a few hours after explosion, the height of the rim is estimated to have been about 15...20 m higher, so about 60...65 m above the previous ground.
How far from the epicentre was the level 6 m above previous surface? 60 cm above previous surface?
How far from Barringer Crater epicentre would a man have died?
 
  • #12
snorkack said:
36 years after Mt. St. Helens exploded, how many people live in the area where the people present in 1980 died?
No infrastructure. Coarse soils of rubble. Poor vegetation.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/35-years-after-mt-st-helens-eruption-nature-returns/
Compare Barringer Crater. Estimated at 10 MT.
The crest of the crater rim is about 600 m radius. But the present height of the crater rim is 45 m above the surrounding plains - and before erosion, say a few hours after explosion, the height of the rim is estimated to have been about 15...20 m higher, so about 60...65 m above the previous ground.
How far from the epicentre was the level 6 m above previous surface? 60 cm above previous surface?
How far from Barringer Crater epicentre would a man have died?
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kri...enviropages/Barringer/barringerstartpage.html
 

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