Robert Weaver (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Galen Gisler (University of Oslo), Dale Ranta (Science Applications International Corporation), and Michael L. Gittings (Science Applications International Corporation)
Keywords: LANL, comet
Abstract:
Calculations with the LANL multiphysics hydrocode SAGE of tsunamis produced by a massive Comet impact in the Indian Ocean is studied with 2D and 3D simulations. We examine the extent of the ejected material from the initial impact and whether that ejecta could be entrained in a distant tsunami, such as the one that left crescents on Madagascar.
Current astrophysical models indicate that globally catastrophic cosmic impacts occur on the average of once per million years, and suggest that no human has been demonstrably killed by impact during recorded history. A review of data from the Quaternary period of the past 2.6 million years indicates instead that several cosmic impacts had significant consequences for ancestral human populations, including during the past 5,000 years. Regrettably, the study of recent impacts is obfuscated by questionable methodologies and poor reporting, and by neglect from archaeologists and anthropologists. One of us (BM) provides in a separate paper an anthropological and geomythology perspective by noting that mythology contains structured observations of major witnessed natural processes and events, including possible impacts, which may be amenable to detailed environmental analysis and chronometric reconstruction. According to the authors’ interpretation of mythology, airbursts in South America apparently generated lethal mass fires, and details contained in worldwide “great flood” myths may relate to a catastrophic oceanic comet impact 4,813 years ago. Reasons are provided for why these modeled impact events have not been previously recognized. If these interpretations are confirmed by future archaeological and geological research, then current models of hazards and risks are based on an incomplete understanding of the cosmic impact record.
Date of Conference: September 12-15, 2007
Track: Poster