The point at which all the asteroids which made impact craters exploded is below ground level. This shields the immediate area from the bright flash which accompanies air and surface blasts that causes intense heat and instant burning. Most of the energy is released upward.
Nuclear testing included four types of situation. 1. an air blast, 2. an at surface blast, 3. an un-contained underground blast causing a crater, and 4. a fully contained underground blast.
The tunguska explosion was like a nuclear air blast. it included a bright flash which caused instant burning and charring for miles around. Those fires were then snuffed out by the shock wave. The shock wave caused great damage. following the shock wave, high winds rush back toward the blast point picking up everything in the way like a vacuum cleaner. This matter follows the fire ball up into the atmosphere and becomes injected into the atmosphere.
A surface blast is very similar to an air blast, but is less destructive because it is so close to the ground. Most of the energy is directed upward.
All asteroid impacts creating impact craters are the same as un-contained underground blasts. These asteroids are so big that the air does not cause enough compression. It is only after entering the ground that critical mass is reached. The blast of an un-contained underground blast is even less destructive than a surface blast. The bright flash is fully contained underground, so instant fires cannot happen. The shock wave is directed almost entirely upward. A much diminished shock wave does follow along on the ground. Most of the energy of the blast is absorbed into moving the earth outward and upward.
Is this all accounted for in your program?
----- Original Message -----
From: glenn morton
To: ASA@calvin.edu
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 2:46 PM
Subject: Meteor Program
Given all the nonsense about meteors causing the flood, I have decided to
put out on my web page a program that I wrote from a Sky and Telescope
article (Unfortunately I forget when it was published--somewhere back in
'93). Anyway, the program allows you to imput the radius of the meteor, the
type of meteor you want, the speed and the angle of descent into the
atmsophere. It will calculate the path through the atmosphere
(unfortunately it doesn't take into account the curvature of the earth and
its atmosphere but it is a good approximation). It also calculates the size
of the crater formed if the meteor hits the earth and the megatonnage of
it.
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