Meteor Disaster at 2350 BC

[asian1]

http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc110501.html

Hello
There is a theory that bronze age civilizations in Iraq, Egypt, Greece and Indus (India) collapsed at 2350BC because of several meteors impact worldwide.

There are possible craters in Al Amarah, Iraq and Argentina.

Is there any plan by Iraqi/US/European scientific team to study the area?

What happen if there is a similar disaster in 21st century?

Can modern civilization recover from similar disaster?

[Cymric]

asian1 wrote:
What happen if there is a similar disaster in 21st century? Can modern civilization recover from similar disaster?

Ever seen 'Deep Impact'? Apart from the fact that there are a few inaccuracies---like the people being able to see the comet approaching when in fact they'd be singed to a crisp---the overall scale of destruction is okay. In fact I think the tsunamis are even too small. 'Armageddon' has a beautifully rendered scene of a comet impacting on Florence.

A few cities hit like that will not cripple civilization. If you increase the impact energy by a factor 10, you ruin a continent, and devastate the global economy. Humankind will survive, though. Increase it again by a factor of 10, and you have a nuclear winter akin to the massive impact that killed off the dinousaurs 65 million years ago and nearly wiped out life. Ironically, it paved the way for mammals like us, but it was a close call.

Take your pick. For further info, see this link. Do not view on a full stomach, it's disturbing.

[T_Bone]

It doesn't take much to push us back to the stone age. I wonder how long it would take to rebuild if you, say, take everyone in NY State and release them on a large tropical island somewhere. How many decades before they have electricity? Computers? Cars?

[KennyR]

How to make a lot of money, the pseudoscientist's guide[/u]

1) Find a disaster event in history, such as the fall of Rome, the end of Old Kingdom Egypt, or the end of the Maian Empire.

2) Think up a really cool idea of how it happened, more exciting than drought or famine. Asteroid impact or a near miss by a black hole are winners.

3) Collecting only circumstantial evidence, compile a case.

4) Publish your results, going to the story-hungry media first rather than a research publication.

5) No matter how much the theory is rubbished by real scientists, write a book about it.

Voila, lots of cash.

I'm cynical, I know; but there have been MANY claims that catastrophic  cosmological events were responsible for turning points in human history. Some are credible. Some even have quite a bit of evidence. Most don't. And many make a hell of a lot of money for not much work, and even less evidence.

[redrumloa]

I wonder how long it would take to rebuild if you, say, take everyone in NY State and release them on a large tropical island somewhere. How many decades before they have electricity? Computers? Cars?

I don't know about electricity, computers and cars but I'd give it a week before they opened a Star Bucks and a Macy's.

[X-ray]

@ Red

 :lol:

[AccyD]

Why do these things always seem to hit America?

[cecilia]

because unfortunately, hollywood thinks america is the center of the universe. they also think LA is all there is. bunch of morons.

[Cymric]

Which reminds me of the following story. I can't remember where I heard or read it, I think it was in a magazine or something. In any case, a woman was telling about her job as a teacher of European (and Dutch in particular) habits and customs to would-be expats from the US. One time, she asked her class of about 20 people, all from the higher management levels of large companies, whether they had any questions regarding Europe. Well, this VP of finance of a major company asks, he wasn't sure whether this qualified as a question, but still... 'Do people sell underwear in Europe?' The guy was under the impression that we were still hunting sabretooth tigers and cave bears and that the US truly were the only civilised country in the world. Mind, a VP of finance of a major company.

[FluffyMcDeath]

@Kenny,

I don't think it's so nutty. It doesn't take much to topple civilisations. If there were an event (impact, volcanism, other) that cut agricultural output by a few percent (especially back when folks lived a little closert to the edge), the food riots and privation would wreak havoc and town folk would have to go out and establish and work their own fields to get enough to eat. It wouldn't be a sudden wiped out by big rock kind of end, but it would spawn resource wars and famine which, over time, would topple a lot of civilizations.

It's much easier to be civilized when your needs are met.

[Fade]

@ FluffyMcDeath
"It wouldn't be a sudden wiped out by big rock kind of end, but it would spawn resource wars and famine which, over time, would topple a lot of civilizations."
-------------

Yeah. especially the easy ones like Canada. :cry:

[blobrana]

Hum,
I used the `drake equation` to work out that we may only have 10 thousand years of technological civilisation left... i assumed that N=1, and inputted the best figures that we have to date...

Of course by then Canada would have swallowed up the rest of the Americas and become a global superpower...

[AccyD]

FluffyMcDeath wrote:
It's much easier to be civilized when your needs are met.

True.

As the situation in Africa has shown - although it is largely self-inflicted (from a national point of view).

[Dan]

T_Bone wrote:
It doesn't take much to push us back to the stone age. I wonder how long it would take to rebuild if you, say, take everyone in NY State and release them on a large tropical island somewhere. How many decades before they have electricity? Computers? Cars?

Obviously you have never seen "Survivor"! :lol: