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Air blast produced by the Meteor Crater impact event and a reconstruction of the affected environment
Author(s) -
KRING David A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
meteoritics and planetary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.09
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 1086-9379
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.1997.tb01297.x
Subject(s) - impact crater , projectile , meteor (satellite) , geology , radius , meteoroid , seismology , shock (circulatory) , explosive material , trajectory , ejecta , event (particle physics) , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , astrobiology , physics , astronomy , geography , astrophysics , medicine , computer security , archaeology , quantum mechanics , supernova , computer science
— Using scaling relationships determined from nuclear explosions, the radial extent of the air blast produced by the Meteor Crater impact event is estimated. The wind velocity at a distance of 5 crater radii (3 km) from the point of impact should have exceeded 2000 km/h. Hurricane force winds would have existed as far away as 20 to 40 km, depending on the exact explosive energy of the impact event. To determine how this event may have affected the environment surrounding the crater, the topography, vegetation, and animal life that existed at the time of the impact are reconstructed. For example, if the coniferous woodlands were 100 m lower than they are presently and they had moved farther out onto the plains, then the air blast would have flattened trees within a 16 to 22 km radius of the point of impact and damaged them over an area of 4100 to 8500 km 2 . The distance over which the damage occurred may have been up to 2× larger in some directions around the crater because of additional effects produced by the ballistic shock wave. Unfortunately, since the trajectory of the projectile is not well known, the direction of the ballistic shock wave effects cannot yet be determined.