Re: Crater may reveal how dinosaurs became extinct

[Stan Friesen <swf@ElSegundoCA.NCR.COM>]

Art Sippo wrote:

 > There is an article in the current issue of Discover Magazine on the
 > Tunguska Explosion in Siberia in 1908.  The article sites evidence
 > that there was indeed a meteor was responsible for the event but
 > that it exploded in mid air several miles above the ground (>10
 > Megatons). ...

Actually, I rather thought this was more of a comet rather than a
meteor.

 >  How about a shower of Tunguska-like exploding meteors similar to
 > the Shoemaker-Levy event on Jupiter?

And Shoemaker-Levy *certainly* was a comet.

 > Or one big one?  In light of the Tunguska findings there
 > might not even BE a crater (or craters) to mark the event.  Maybe all it left
 > was some suspicious dust in the KT boundary layer like they have in Siberia.
 
Actually, I doubt that an aerial explosion of a comet would have anywhere
near the ecological effect of a ground/water impact of a meteorite.

For one thing, the power of the Shoemaker-Levy impacts was due at least
in part to the immense gravity of Jupiter. The equivalent strikes on
Earth would be much less energetic.

swf@elsegundoca.ncr.com         sarima@ix.netcom.com

The peace of God be with you.