On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 GSP1954@aol.com wrote:
Some in this discussion still seem to imagine that sand sized blast
debris
can be imbedded in bone surfaces or skin at substantial range from an
meteoritic
explosion. Tiny particles can travel at high velocities if they are being
carried along by air that is itself an equally fast moving part of the
supersonic
shock wave (shock waves are shock waves because they move faster than
sound)
produced by the explosion, which are limited to the region immediately
surrounding the point source. Anything hit by high velocity microdebris
in this zone
will be so severely damaged by even more obvious shock and heat that the
sand
impact will be incidental. The supposedly impacted tusks and bones should
be
shattered and scorched. Any living animal will be killed outright, the
debris
will not be the killing agent. Once the micro-debris hits stable air it
slows
down to harmless terminal velocity in well under a kilometer. Even pebble
sized
objects will slow down to a 100 mph in a few kilometers. That is why
being
hit by a round musket ball or grape shot at long range was not lethal.