94% Probability 1 km Asteroid to Hit South Pole in 2012 and Cause Ice Shelf Collapse?

"University of British Columbia Professor published an on-line article that projected an 800m asteroid would hit Antarctica in the fall of 2012.His article was on the www.phas.ubc.ca website for 2 days before it abruptly disappeared.

One week after this mysterious article disappeared, “Canadian and American astronauts say the world needs to prepare for the big one "

Really??

Millions of methane gases are in the arctic. If this hits wouldn't this cause...........can't say the proper word.

Originally posted by ignant
One week after this mysterious article disappeared, “Canadian and American astronauts say the world needs to prepare for the big one "

Really??

Well I don't think anyone's going to question the fact that the world DOES need to prepare for the inevitable.

What I do question is whether if they really found something, they would choose to keep it secret or not. And they might. Especially with something that size. 1 km is not an ELE, because remember a huge portion of it is going to burn up before it hits. They may feel rather than freaking everyone out and causing world panic, it would be better to keep it secret, because their chances to successfully intercept, and either destroy or divert it are pretty good.

Now if it was say, 100,000 km wide, and was bearing down on earth, they might also choose to keep it secret. Why put the earth through the incredible pandemonium that would result with an announcement like that? Let humans be humans and at least enjoy the ignorant bliss until the fateful day. Charged with that responsibility, I might opt for keeping the secret as well, just to protect humanity from its inability to handle the truth.

reply to post by EmperorXyn


If Governments had this technology believe me they would be shouting it out to the world - just to show how superior they are. This has been discussed in a number of Documentaries and the many scenarios that have been suggested have ALL fallen short of producing something effective.

Originally posted by collietta
I'm very skeptical, but just for fun I looked up a global warming interactive that shows sea level rise. This interactive flood map only goes up to 60 meters, but it gives a good idea of areas that would be wiped out should an asteriod cause the ice shelf to break apart.

Nice. I own three houses atm... and at 60 meters I still dont have a single one at risk. And on one particular case I even get a beach about 500m from that house... I'M GOING TO HAVE A BEACH HOUSE!!!

I Vote for 60 meters I'll now start moving to the ... wait... no I'm not... I'LL SELL IT! Hell yea... it will be worth much more cause its now a beach house and will be a damn luxury to all ppl - rich ones of course - who get homeless... yes yes... so the sea level rises 60 meters I'll be a very very rich man... one is a beach house, the other 2 I can sell them as "perfectly safe - never touched by the cataclysm"...

Ohhh come on asteroid...

Originally posted by anthonygillespie2012
Millions of methane gases are in the arctic. If this hits wouldn't this cause...........can't say the proper word.

Proper word is "another permian-triassic" extinction.

reply to post by Starchild23
they never said shoot it there is more than 2 ways to change its course .and being that it was found in 2010 the would have plenty of time to send magnetic pressure bombs that would blow up close but not directally on it and gradually change its course.just moving it one inch if it were 20'000 au's would have it 100's of thousands of miles off course befor it hit earts.

This-will-really-screw-up-any-war-plans
Unless-Bruce-Willis-can-redirect-it-to-land-on--a-middle-eastern-country-starting-with-i

This is a different asteroid but, i guess today there will be a pretty close call.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


this will come to absolutely nothing

Just like everything else posted on ATS.

It won't change the temperature of the south pole, so I'm sure the ice would stay frozen.
If the impact did split the ice and melt some, it would just refreeze.

Umm, aren't you guys forgetting about the insane amount of heat generated by such a collision? And what happens when ice meets 2000 degrees?

Uh huh. Melt. Lots of ice melting. Like many gargantuan glacier's worth.

According to this websites calculations( www.astronomynotes.com... ) a tinny little 1km wide asteroid is a little spec of sand against Antarctica. Look at google maps your self and do the measurements. It would only create a creator 20km wide in diameter. The resulting tsunami is debatable but not nearly 70 meters high. According to the site it would die out to a mere 3m high tsunami but that doesn't include any ice shelf breaking off. There would be a earthquake measuring around 9.4 which might make the ice shelf really unstable. hard to say for certain what could happen but i really don't think you need to worry that much about it.

Originally posted by nyancat
According to this websites calculations( www.astronomynotes.com... ) a tinny little 1km wide asteroid is a little spec of sand against Antarctica. Look at google maps your self and do the measurements. It would only create a creator 20km wide in diameter. The resulting tsunami is debatable but not nearly 70 meters high. According to the site it would die out to a mere 3m high tsunami but that doesn't include any ice shelf breaking off. There would be a earthquake measuring around 9.4 which might make the ice shelf really unstable. hard to say for certain what could happen but i really don't think you need to worry that much about it.

edit on 17-1-2012 by nyancat because: (no reason given)

i think you're confused about the 70 meter prediction. it's not for a tsunami but the possible sea level rise if the ice shelf should become unstable and end up in the sea floating around on it's merry way.

Originally posted by ignant

One week after this mysterious article disappeared, “Canadian and American astronauts say the world needs to prepare for the big one "

Really??

that's eerie, do you have a linky???

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni

Originally posted by anthonygillespie2012
Millions of methane gases are in the arctic. If this hits wouldn't this cause...........can't say the proper word.

Proper word is "another permian-triassic" extinction.

No. The Permian-Triassic extinction was caused by the largest flood basalt eruptions ever in Siberia, and on top of that it was happening up through the largest coal deposits on the planet. There might have been an impact event somewhere in there. Anyways, it #ed up circulation in the ocean which caused only the uppermost layer of the ocean to be oxygenated. This killed a lot of stuff on top of the damage that this extreme level of volcanism caused to all life. The Permian Triassic extinction was not exclusively methane by a long shot

hello fellow fan of English satire, Pratchett is one of my favourite writers.
The meteor will hit shortly after the celestial teapot has been confirmed and great a`tuin is seen in the virgo constellation.

Doesn't ice no matter the size float on the surface of water, thus rendering the whole "water levels rising" thing null, void and laughable?

Or have they changed the rules of physics since last night?

reply to post by curious7


If you didn't know, the vast majority of antarctic ice sits on land. This is not conducive to that ice displacing water.