A major meteorite impact on Earth could spell doomsday — or not. To better predict what could be in store if a giant space rock slammed into our planet, scientists have built a new model to simulate the seismic fallout from such an event.
The model predicts how seismic waves would spread through Earth after a meteorite collision. It's the first to take into account the planet's elliptical shape, surface features and ocean depths. In contrast, previous models have assumed Earth is perfectly spherical and featureless, with nothing to disrupt a meteorite's impact.
"After a meteorite impact, seismic waves travel outward across the Earth's surface like after a stone is thrown in water," research leader Matthias Meschede of the University of Munich said in a statement. "For the Earth, these calculations are usually made using a smooth, perfect sphere model, but we found that the surface features of a planet or a moon have a huge effect on the aftershock a large meteorite will have, so it's extremely important to take those into account."
The researchers used their new model to simulate the collision that created the Chicxulub crater in Mexico around 65 million years ago. This crash, which was 2 million times more powerful than a hydrogen bomb, is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs and much of Earth's life at the time.
The new study showed that the seismic waves resulting from the impact would have been scattered and unfocused, causing less severe ground displacement, tsunamis, and seismic and volcanic activity than previously thought.
"But our results go beyond Chicxulub," Meschede said. "We can, in principle, now estimate how large a meteorite would have to have been to cause catastrophic events. Our model can be used to estimate the magnitude and effect of other major impacts in Earth's past."
NASA and astronomers around the world regularly keep track of potentially hazardous asteroids. NASA announced last month that it has found about 90 percent of the largest, most dangerous space rocks near our planet.
To that end, NASA is tracking a huge space rock, the asteroid 2005 YU55, which is the size of an aircraft carrier and will fly close by the Earth, inside the orbit of the moon, on Nov. 8. Though this is considered a very close pass, the rock is calculated to pose no risk to planet Earth.
Meschede developed the new model with colleagues while visiting Princeton University through the Visiting Student Research Collaborators program. The researchers describe their new model in the October issue of Geophysical Journal International.
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Killer Asteroid Hurtling Toward Earth -- How Worried Should We Be?
by Norman Byrd
A massive aircraft-carrier-sized asteroid is headed in Earth's direction. Scientists say it will not impact the planet but it will pass closer to the Earth than lunar orbit. And it's the largest asteroid that will pass by Earth for the the next decade and a half.
According to the astronomers and scientists at the Near Earth Object (NEO) Project, a gigantic piece of space rock, what could be called a killer asteroid, is barreling through the heavens on its way to a crossing point with Earth orbit. Luckily for the denizens of the third planet from the sun, it will still be .8 lunar distance units (180,000 miles) away from their world when it crosses that orbit point.
NASA classifies asteroid 2005 YU55 as a "potentially hazardous object," but astronomers at NEO maintain that there is no chance of a collision on this passage by the Earth (asteroids and other objects have a gravitational relationship with the sun and, unless interfered with in some way, will usually maintain some type of orbital pattern), rendering the planet safe from 2005 YU55 for at least 100 years.
The NEO Project recently reported the completion of the mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer in identifying and cataloguing near Earth objects. The study found that there were 40 percent fewer mid-range asteroids (from 330 feet in diameter to 3,300 feet) in the solar system than previously theorized and that, of all those asteroids located, none were on a collision course with Earth anytime soon. However, the study also concluded that they had found only 90 percent of the Solar System's asteroids.
Ten percent of the asteroids left undiscovered are massive rocks that could potentially have a devastating effect if they were to collide with Earth.
As to the mid-range asteroid (1,312 feet wide) currently headed in the general direction of Earth, according to CNN, an expert at Purdue University noted that if such a killer asteroid were to impact the planet, it would have the same effect as a 4,000 megaton blast or a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. If the asteroid were to land in the ocean, it could potentially cause a 70-foot high tsunami within 60 miles of the crash epicenter.
To compare, the meteor that is believed to have flashed across the sky in the Tunguska region of Siberia, Russia in 1908 has been estimated to have been only 120 feet in diameter. It has been theorized that the airburst from that blast was the equivalent of 185 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs (releasing energy at an outside range of 18 kilotons per bomb). The remote area saw forests laid low and burned for in a zone measuring 830 square miles from the blast's epicenter. Asteroid 2005 YU55, if it were to impact the Earth, would release energy equivalent to 222,222 Hiroshima-sized bombs.
And that is still far smaller than the Chicxulub asteroid that impacted off the Yucatan peninsula over 65 million years ago and is believed to have been the most significant causal contribution to the massive dinosaur die-off and the K-T mass extinction event. That asteroid was estimated to be 6-9 miles wide, releasing the same energy as a billion Hiroshima-sized atomic blasts.
Not to let an opportunity pass, though, astronomers are expected to take advantage of the near miss passage of the asteroid. It is a rare occasion that scientists are able to view asteroids via optical lenses. NASA will join the skywatch as well, using the Goldstone radar telescopes in the Mojave desert to study the massive space rock. The giant Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico is expected to devote several days to high resolution mapping as well.
Asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass closest to Earth on Nov. 8. It will be a daylight object and those wishing to get a glimpse will have their best chance after 4 p.m. EST.
Massive Tsunami Drill Coincides With Continent Killer Asteroids Close Pass In November
9-10 November 2011: In August 2010, the PTWS Steering Committee (SC) met to discuss the progress of the PTWS during the intersessional period, including the next PTWS exercise. Considering the general objectives of PACWAVE08, the SC approved the PACWAVE Summary Report and requested Working Groups 2 and 3 (Tsunami Detection, Warning and Dissemination; Tsunami Awareness and Response) to cooperate in the preparation of an end-to-end communication exercise PACWAVE11 in November 2011. The actual evacuation of local communities (or parts of it) will be left to the decision of local or national authorities. A PTWS Exercises Task Team was formed, chaired by ITIC and New Zealand, to organize the exercise and elaborate on detailed scenarios.PacWave11 will be held on 9-10 November 2011 as a multi-scenario exercise that will allow all PTWS countries to exercise using a destructive local or regional tsunami scenario. PacWave 11 will also be used to introduce new tsunami advisory products of the PTWC that were proposed by the PTWS Enhanced Tsunami Warning Products Task Team and approved by ICG/PTWS-XXIV. IOC Circular Letter 2390 was issued on 13 May 2011 announcing the exercise and requesting PTWS Countries to nominate a PacWave11 focal point. IOC Manual and Guides 58 on How to Plan, Conduct, and Evaluate Tsunami Exercises was issued in July 2011. The PacWave11 Exercise Manual (IOC TS 97) was published in August 2011. UNESCO will issue a press release on 1 November 2011.
Previously on Wednesday October 12, 2011 twenty countries participated in an advanced tsunami drill in wake of recent earth changes.
It is well known that earthquakeactivity has increased ever so rapidly over the past few years/months and now multiple countries are interested in tracking tsunamis in an advanced way.
The new system will shift responsibility from United States and Japan to the countries most at risk in the region.
Wednesday’s drill marked a significant development for the ability of countries in the Indian Ocean region to detect and respond to earthquakes and tsunamis. Stuart Weinstein, the deputy director of the United States’ Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii says the warning centers participating in the drill in Indonesia, India and Australia did not exist before the 2004 Tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in 12 countries.
Does this system test have anything to do with the passing of the massive continent killer asteroid 2005 YU55 that will pass very close to earth possibly striking or dragging debris with it on November 9, 2011, in conjunction with the FEMA/FCC takeover drill?
Vietnam has held its first-ever tsunami evacuation drills in the central coastal city of Danang. The drills were carried out Tuesday for a scenario that saw the country hit by a huge tsunami like the one that devastated Japan earlier this year.
A UN report issued after Japan’s March 11th disaster says that an 8-point-6 magnitude earthquake in waters off the Philippines could trigger a 3- to 10-meter tall tsunami along the coastal regions of Vietnam.
Interestingly enough the major Japanese tsunami that struck in March of 1022 was within a few days of a major ELENIN alignment according to NASA’s JPL data.
The mock tsunami drill has been conducted to check the preparedness of officials of various departments along with the communication systems and to simulate the evacuation and rescue mission that will take place in case of an actual tsunami,” according to commandant of the India Reserve Battalion, Puducherry, A. Anto Alphonse.
In this case, the Tsunami Warning centre issued a warning of an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, which caused a tsunami. This warning was received by the Senior Superintendent of Police (Law and Order) V. J. Chandiran along with the emergency centres in the town, according to Sub Collector A. Muthamma.
Homosexual thought control is rapidly becoming the law of the land in our country.
As you’ve probably seen, Public Advocate has been aggressively fighting to defend the career of Viki Knox, a Special Education teacher in Union Township, NJ.
Mrs. Knox has recently come under intense fire for being brave enough to speak out against “Homosexual History Month.”
Over the past few years the Homosexual Lobby’s attacks on students and teachers have drastically increased in their growing war on classrooms and morality.
They want to turn public schools into indoctrination centers for their perverted agenda and silence all decency and morality.
And my friend, I’m afraid they’re winning.
They have already infiltrated so much of the establishment, putting pro-Family Americans like you and me on the OUTSIDE.
And now they are trying to paint Mrs. Knox as some kind of crazed hate-monger.
You and I have eagerly answered this call to action, swarming the phone lines of local school officials with demands for justice.
But we have to keep the pressure up. We have to let these officials know that mainstream Americans support the stand Mrs. Knox has taken, and we demand they drop all charges against her.
Parishioners and visitors attend mass at a Roman Catholic Church in Ireland in a …
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Catholic Ireland's stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See's prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
The closure brought relations between Ireland and the Vatican, once ironclad allies, to an all-time low following the row earlier this year over the Irish Church's handling of sex abuse cases and accusations that the Vatican had encouraged secrecy.
Ireland will now be the only major country of ancient Catholic tradition without an embassy to the Vatican.
"This is really bad for the Vatican because Ireland is the first big Catholic country to do this and because of what Catholicism means in Irish history," said a Vatican diplomatic source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
He said Ireland informed the Vatican shortly before the announcement was made on Thursday night.
Dublin's foreign ministry said the embassy was being closed because "it yields no economic return" and that relations would be continued with an ambassador in Dublin.
The source said the Vatican was "extremely irritated" by the wording equating diplomatic missions with economic return, particularly as the Vatican sees its diplomatic role as promoting human values.
Diplomats said the Irish move might sway others to follow suit to save money because double diplomatic presences in Rome are expensive.
It was the latest crack in relations that had been seen as rock solid until a few years ago.
DAMNING REPORT
In July, the Vatican took the highly unusual step of recalling its ambassador to Ireland after Prime Minister Enda Kenny accused the Holy See of obstructing investigations into sexual abuse by priests.
The Irish parliament passed a motion deploring the Vatican's role in "undermining child protection frameworks" following publication of a damning report on the diocese of Cloyne.
The Cloyne report said Irish clerics concealed from the authorities the sexual abuse of children by priests as recently as 2009, after the Vatican disparaged Irish child protection guidelines in a letter to Irish bishops.
While Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore denied the embassy closure was linked to the row over sexual abuse, Rome-based diplomats said they believed it probably played a major role.
"All things being equal, I really doubt the mission to the Vatican would have been on the list to get the axe without the fallout from the sex abuse scandal," one ambassador to the Vatican said, on condition of anonymity.
Cardinal Sean Brady, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, said he was profoundly disappointed by the decision and hoped the government would "revisit" it.
"This decision seems to show little regard for the important role played by the Holy See in international relations and of the historic ties between the Irish people and the Holy See over many centuries," Brady said in a statement.
The Vatican has been an internationally recognized sovereign city-state since 1929, when Italy compensated the Catholic Church for a vast area of central Italy known as the Papal States that was taken by the state at Italian unification in 1860.
It has diplomatic relations with 179 countries. About 80 have resident ambassadors and the rest are based in other European cities.
The Vatican guards its diplomatic independence fiercely and in the past has resisted moves by some countries to locate their envoys to the Holy See inside their embassies to Italy.
Dublin said it was closing its mission to the Vatican along with those in Iran and East Timor to help meet its fiscal goals under an EU-IMF bailout. The closures will save the government 1.25 million euros ($1.725 million) a year.
(Additional reporting by Carmel Crimmins and Conor Humphries in Dublin; Editing by Tim Pearce)
Arvella Schuller, left, and Rev. Robert Schuller, in 1998: AP Photo/John Hayes
Some members of a bankrupt Orange County, Calif. megachurch are expressing outrage after fielding an email request for congregants to deliver food to waiting limos so that it can ferried to the founder's sick wife. The appeal comes weeks after a lawsuit charged that the founder of the Crystal Cathedral house of worship, Rev. Robert Schuller, and his family had been paying themselves lavish salaries and other benefits while the church was in financial straits.
"They've completely depleted the church's funds," one member, Bob Canfield, told the Orange County Register. "But they have shown that they have absolutely no remorse for what they've done. They're still being chauffeured around in limos. We, the congregants, have nothing."
An email sent recently by Crystal Cathedral administrators said that Schuller and his wife, Arvella, "would appreciate meals over the next three to four weeks." It added: "They are to be sent to the church in order to be transported to Arvella. The limo drivers could pick up the dinners or meet in the Tower Lobby around 4:30 p.m."
Arvella Schuller has been suffering from pneumonia, and the email asked that the food be low in sodium and include items such as fruit, meat, soup and eggs.
"R.H. Schuller used his control and influence to cause the [cathedral] to enter into the agreements that benefitted himself and his family, to the detriment of the creditors and in breach of his fiduciary duties" to the church, the suit charges.
A spokesman for the church, John Charles, said the food request was in keeping with the church's commitment to Christian charity. "As Dr. Schuller always says, 'Find a need and fill it,'" he said. "I think that's what we were trying to do here."
But Canfield sees things differently. "These are millionaires who have limos and chauffeurs," he said. "Why in God's name would they want the congregants to deliver meals? It's ludicrous."
CONWAY, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The oldest Roman Catholic newspaper in the United States has retracted an opinion column that said the devil may cause homosexual attraction after the essay was condemned by gay rights groups.
The 184-year-old weekly newspaper, the Boston Pilot, run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, on Wednesday removed from its website the October 28 article titled, "Some fundamental questions on same-sex attraction."
The article stated that "scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil."
The newspaper also posted on its website and in its November 4 print edition a "retraction/apology" by the author, Daniel Avila, who advises on policy against gay marriage for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In his apology, Avila wrote that he opposes "all unjust discrimination" and noted that his column did not represent the position of the Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Pilot echoed his statement of regret and apologized for not having seen the theological error in the column before publication.
DignityUSA, a gay Catholic activist group, expressed outrage at the piece.
Marianne Duddy-Burke, the group's executive director, said Avila and the archdiocese "have inflicted tremendous damage on the souls and psyches" of gay people.
"We are deeply concerned that a man with such extreme beliefs remains an advisor to the U.S. bishops, and will still be permitted to write for the Pilot. This shows that Catholic officials are willing to go to extremes in their anti-gay campaign. The Archdiocese of Boston and the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference should immediately terminate their relationship with Mr. Avila," Duddy-Burke added.
Recent figures show the newspaper has a circulation of about 21,000.
McALLEN, Texas (AP) – A Texas family law judge whose daughter secretly videotaped him savagely beating her seven years ago won't face criminal charges because too much time has elapsed, police said Thursday.
AP
This image from the Aransas County, Texas Court-at-Law Web page shows Aransas County Judge William Adams.
Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams likely would have been charged with causing injury to a child or other assault-related offenses for the 2004 beating of his then-16-year-old daughter, but the five-year statutes of limitations expired, Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe said.
"We believe that there was a criminal offense involved and that there was substantial evidence to indicate that and under normal circumstances … a charge could have been made," Jayroe said. He said the district attorney determined he couldn't bring charges, and that police would discuss the case with federal prosecutors even though he doesn't believe federal charges would apply.
Hillary Adams, now 23, posted the 8-minute clip on YouTube last week that shows her father viciously lashing her with a belt and trying to force her to bend over her bed to be beaten despite her wails and pleas to stop. The clip had received more than 2.4 million hits as of Thursday, and police began investigating Wednesday after hearing from concerned citizens.
William Adams, 51, issued a three-page statement Thursday saying his daughter posted the clip to get back at him for telling her he would be reducing the amount of financial support he gives her and taking away her Mercedes. The statement did not include an apology for the beating, but he told Corpus Christi television station KZTV on Wednesday that the video "looks worse than it is," that he had already apologized to his daughter and that he was just disciplining his child for stealing.
Hillary Adams says her parents were angry because she had downloaded pirated content online, and that she turned on the camera because she sensed something was going to happen.
William Adams, who presides over child abuse cases, is still being investigated by the state's judicial conduct commission and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which on Thursday requested that he be removed from its cases until the investigation concludes.
Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the agency, declined to elaborate on the exact nature of the investigation. But he said that in general, the agency would only investigate a case in which a suspected abuse victim has already reached adulthood if there are still children in the home who could be at risk. Adams was granted joint custody of his 10-year-old daughter in his 2007 divorce.
There are no allegations of alleged abuse by Adams against his younger daughter, who primarily resides with her mother, Hallie Adams. Crimmins declined to say whether his agency is investigating the parental fitness of Hallie Adams, who lashed Hillary once during the 2004 beating.
Crimmins said his agency ordinarily wouldn't disclose that it is investigating someone, but that it did in this case because the investigation is the reason it requested that William Adams be taken off its cases.
Jayroe said that police did not interview the younger daughter, but asked both Hallie and Hillary Adams about it and there was no indication of abuse of the younger daughter.
In his statement Thursday, Adams said he would "respond" to all investigations. As Aransas County's top judge, he has dealt with at least 349 family law cases in the past year alone, nearly 50 of which involved state caseworkers seeking determine whether parents were fit to raise their children.
County officials confirmed that Adams will not hear cases related to Child Protective Services for at least the next two weeks. And the top administrator in Aransas County cast doubt on whether Adams could credibly return to the bench.
"I would think it would be very difficult," said Aransas County Judge C.H. "Burt" Mills Jr. "Personally I don't see how he can recover from this."
If the judicial commission and police investigations don't lead to punishment or charges, Adams could be safe on the bench until he's up for re-election in three years.
Hillary Adams said she waited so long to expose her father because she was terrified at what might have happened had she done so while still living under his roof. She said the outpouring of support and encouragement she's received since posting the clip is tempered by the sadness that it's her father repeatedly lashing her with a belt and threatening to beat her "into submission."
During an interview with her mother Thursday on NBC's Today show, Hillary Adams said her father regularly beat her for a period of time. has repeatedly said she didn't post the clip to spite her father, and that she hopes it forces him to seek help.
Her mother blamed her ex-husband's bouts of violence on an "addition." She called it a "family secret," but declined to elaborate.
In his statement, though, William Adams painted a starkly different picture of why his daughter posted the clip.
"Just prior to the YouTube upload, a concerned father shared with his 23-year-old daughter that he was unwilling to continue to work hard and be her primary source of financial support, if she was going to simply 'drop out,' and strive to achieve no more in life than to work part time at a video game store," Adams' statement said. "Hillary warned her father if he reduced her financial support, and took away her Mercedes automobile, which her father had provided, he would live to regret it."
Hillary Adams did not immediately respond to e-mail requests Thursday seeking a response.
