I did a few rough calculations based on the meterorite over Russia last year, you're looking at a million ton rock at 18 m/s.
Wiki's page on Kinetic Bombardment gives a 0.3 x 6.1 m tungsten pole as impacting with approx 11.5 tons of TNT. Based on that you'd need just over 10,000,000,000,000,000 of such "Rods from God" to meet the surface energy level of the Tohoku Earthquake.
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 3/3/14, Claude Murdoch <> wrote:
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Ukraine
To:
Date: Monday, 3 March, 2014, 3:33
So, from an orbital “kinetic kill” PoV, what does
this look like..?
From: Eamon
Watters
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2014 7:25 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE]
Ukraine
I'm not sure that's practical, and it may not
even be
possible.
Earthquakes that spawn tsunamis do so using the surface
energy
(seismic waves) of the quake. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and
Tsunami packed
around 1.9×10^17 joules of surface energy. That's
equivalent to around 45
Megatonnes - so we're talking about something equivalent
to the Tsar
Bomba.
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 3/3/14,
Another Carpenter <> wrote:
Subject: Re:
[Traveller_TNE] Ukraine
To:
Date: Monday, 3
March, 2014, 2:48
actually, the entire black sea
can be swept clear of
ALL fleets, and the coastal areas
completely swept clean in under 1/2 hour
with a single
missle. as long as said missle had a small/medium
sized
thermonuclear warhead and was detonated at about the
center of the black sea,
at depth. Every single thing afloat
would be likely sunk or rendered useless,
the shore would be
cleared inland probably for more than a few miles,
except
where cliffs are prevalent.
The population loss would be
devastating, as would the
long term economic and infrastructural damage.
In
point of fact, in-water subsurface bursts would be the most
devastating
form of a nuclear blast. Imagine the Russians
50kton monster detonated in the
middle of the Pacific ocean!
It'd make the Tsunami inundation of Indonesia in
2004
seem like kids playing in a puddle. The loss of life would
easily
climb in to the 100's of millions, possibly over
a billion even, from a
Tsunami that would literally wipe out
the coastal regions of five
continents.
Hell, one in the Atlantic ocean at roughly the same
time could
wipe out in excess of 3 billion human
beings.
However, I for one, would
like to believe that we
as a race are a bit more civilized than that.
But, I am sadly made aware on a daily basis that there
are those in the
world whom are NOT so
civilized.
Wiki's page on Kinetic Bombardment gives a 0.3 x 6.1 m tungsten pole as impacting with approx 11.5 tons of TNT. Based on that you'd need just over 10,000,000,000,000,000 of such "Rods from God" to meet the surface energy level of the Tohoku Earthquake.
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 3/3/14, Claude Murdoch <> wrote:
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Ukraine
To:
Date: Monday, 3 March, 2014, 3:33
So, from an orbital “kinetic kill” PoV, what does
this look like..?
From: Eamon
Watters
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2014 7:25 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE]
Ukraine
I'm not sure that's practical, and it may not
even be
possible.
Earthquakes that spawn tsunamis do so using the surface
energy
(seismic waves) of the quake. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and
Tsunami packed
around 1.9×10^17 joules of surface energy. That's
equivalent to around 45
Megatonnes - so we're talking about something equivalent
to the Tsar
Bomba.
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 3/3/14,
Another Carpenter <> wrote:
Subject: Re:
[Traveller_TNE] Ukraine
To:
Date: Monday, 3
March, 2014, 2:48
actually, the entire black sea
can be swept clear of
ALL fleets, and the coastal areas
completely swept clean in under 1/2 hour
with a single
missle. as long as said missle had a small/medium
sized
thermonuclear warhead and was detonated at about the
center of the black sea,
at depth. Every single thing afloat
would be likely sunk or rendered useless,
the shore would be
cleared inland probably for more than a few miles,
except
where cliffs are prevalent.
The population loss would be
devastating, as would the
long term economic and infrastructural damage.
In
point of fact, in-water subsurface bursts would be the most
devastating
form of a nuclear blast. Imagine the Russians
50kton monster detonated in the
middle of the Pacific ocean!
It'd make the Tsunami inundation of Indonesia in
2004
seem like kids playing in a puddle. The loss of life would
easily
climb in to the 100's of millions, possibly over
a billion even, from a
Tsunami that would literally wipe out
the coastal regions of five
continents.
Hell, one in the Atlantic ocean at roughly the same
time could
wipe out in excess of 3 billion human
beings.
However, I for one, would
like to believe that we
as a race are a bit more civilized than that.
But, I am sadly made aware on a daily basis that there
are those in the
world whom are NOT so
civilized.