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Re: Elton: Meteor May Not Have Destroyed Dinosaurs Afterall?

Thank you very much, Elton.  Your reply fulfilled
completely my expectations of your abilities and
knowledge. 

Let's now proceed from this initial state.

What is observed, (a few deluded individuals like
David Hatcher Childress excepted), is that all larger
animals died in the K-T event, except those that
burrowed: snakes, turtles, crocodiles, alligators, and
mice.  Their burrowing activity allowed them to escape
the overpressures and fire.

It was a puzzle why birds should be added to this
list, but your observation that their lungs can
withstand higher overpressures explains their survival
neatly.  I don't think that the information for bird
lungs can be extended to dinosaurs, in as much as bird
lungs are uniquely adapted for the atmospheric changes
involved with flight.

Now comes the interesting part.  Not only would
natural features serve to focus and intensify the
blast overpressures to lethal levels well beyond the
400 mile range you cite, but the shock wave would have
been herded by the Earth's gravity to meet again at
lethal level at a point on exactly the opposite side
of the Earth from the impact point itself.  (This is a
first order estimate, determining exactly the size of
the lethal area on the opposite side would require
some fairly complex math.)

This pulse itself then rebounds.  Add in the other
secondary pulse caused by the return of the blown out
atmosphere back to Earth due to gravity, and you have
repeated pulses to overpressure, along with the
thermal wave, (I did mention that all this air was
superheated, didn't I?): no larger animal survived.

Whatever the effects of the Deccan Traps, they were
minor compared to this. It is an open question as to
whether the Trap's volcanic activity preceeded the K-T
impact, or whether the energy added by K-T impact
triggered an existing (perhaps active) fault.

In conclusion, the amount of money spent
internationally on impact research should at least
equal that spent on volcanology.

EP

PS on crypotozoology - While some people want to
believe that some larger animals survived the K-T
event, the physics of it do not seem to allow for this
possibilty.  It is far more likely that surviving
creatures evolved into similar forms to occupy the
same niches, and that some of these are now extinct. 
That these animals may have been collected by ancient
kings may be possible, as seen on both the Narner
Pallette and the Ishtar Gate.







     

--- "E. L. Jones" <jonee@epix.net> wrote:
> Hello Ed and  Louis,
> 
> Human lungs can burst (rupture at the micro/ alveoli
> level) thru just 15 psi
> over static  pressure.  Death comes through  airsacs
> filling with plasma and
> loosing their capacity to exchange oxygen and carbon
> dioxide. Human ear drums
> will rupture about half that and aorta just over
> that.  15 psi is called one
> "over pressure" -- Which is a standard calibrated
> atmosphere factored by some
> duration peak and subsidence (bleed-off). Since the
> medium of air is elastic and
> compressible there is a great deal of variation on
> tissue damage. Reflected
> energy from a wall affects tissue more strongly then
> the same size pressure wave
> out in the open. 
> 
> Dinosaur Lungs?  Well if we use the Bird as an
> animal model to reflect  lung
> adaptability-- bird lungs seems more resilient. 
> Goat aortas rupture before
> their lungs do or so I believe I recall.  These were
> from survival studies a
> long while ago and safe exposure levels for blast
> pressure. Live animal and
> human volunteer and cadaver I think.
> 
> I can a test that if you are near any object which
> focuses, reflects,  or traps
> the blast- it is amplified.  I have gotten a hard
> wallop on my thighs firing  a
> TOW missile in a way that the control console was
> seated next to them.  The
> blast was directed away from my back  but the blast
> /shockwave went around my
> body slapped my back.  When  it encircled me and was
> reflected back by the
> console it encountered more oncoming shock waves.
> They combined to produce a
> wallop about like one's grampa might have delivered
> in the vicinity of the wood
> shed.... .I hope this answers your question on
> lungs.
> 
> The meteor crater blast-front was estimated to have
> caused the death of any
> exposed creature in a 400 mile radius (800 mile
> diameter) in the supper sonic
> propagation which might have well been instantaneous
> in effect even thought it
> would have taken a few minutes to drop off to a
> survivable level.
> 
> I don't have the specifics  but in addition to blast
> etc.  I think we had an
> atmospheric blowout at Chuixilub   so we had blow
> out and suck in.
> 
> Regards,
> Elton
> 
> "E.P. Grondine" wrote:
> > 
> > Hello Elton -
> > 
> >      I'm wondering if you happen to have at hand
> from
> > your explosives knowledge the atmospheric pressure
> at
> > which lungs rupture?  How exactly does it compare
> with
> > the overpressures generated by the K-T impact
> event?
> > 
> > EP
> > 
> >
> 

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