Earth to have close brush with comet, page 12

Originally posted by thermopolis
Interesting coincidence that the last two quakes in the south pacific 8.0/7.8 (tonga)and the 7.4 were on the exact day(s) of predicted "near miss"? The 7.4 (May 16th)being from 2006 gy2......Perhaps unseen frag's? Check the NEO site for date coordination

Firstly, you can find information on the main earthquake here: Magnitude 7.9 - TONGA

Now, I would really have to say no to that hypothesis. Firstly, it would have to enter the Earth's atmosphere. This would cause a spectacularly bright streak, even in the day time, accross the sky. Accompanying this would be a cloud of smoke, dust, and debris. People would have seen it, probably gotten it on video, or at least pictures of it, and it would have been up on the news everywhere. Now, this is important also because comets are very tenuous, composing mainly of ice. A smaller fragment, such as all that remains behind that has been coming remotely near us, would enter the atmosphere and simply vaporize itself. A fragment that could hit the Earth would still burn away mostly, but it would also so itself down to the point where if it hit solid ground it wouldn't create any appreciable crater - maybe something a couple of feet deep, but that's about all. If the same fragment hit water, it would just melt into nothingness.

Onto the earthquake itself... The depth of the epicenter for the quake was 55 km (34.2 miles). So that means if it were a chunk of the comet it would have to go through the atmosphere, then the water, then over 30 miles of rock before having any sort of noticeable effects on the Earth. That's just impossible.

Aside from the difficulties it would face going though the air, when it begins it interact with the water, these difficulties would increase a lot more. Water is far more dense than air, so unless it were massive enough to push the water out of the way with the air in its bow wave, it would just splash down, cause some medium to large sized tsunamis, and slowly sink to the bottom (or at least to a depth where it would be neutrally bouyant). For example, fill up your bathtub right to the rim. Then throw in some pennies. See how many hit the bottom at a high speed.

Then, if it did make it through the water, the epicenter would have been right at the level of the ground below the sea, not 55 km below the ground. I think that that's the final blow to your hypothesis.

Originally posted by St Udio
i know you all will use the excuse of blaming it on the servers or whatever...

Yeah, because we're having server problems... A simple solution to that? Copy all of your post and paste it into a writing program before posting it, especially on the lengthy ones. Even better yet, just type up the post in the writing software. I've been doing that since even before the server problems, and it's saved my butt on those lengthy posts manytimes. I can certainly tell you it's no censorship of ATS though, and I find the thought of that simply preposterous.

Also, this link may be of use for you: ATS and censorship.

Originally posted by crt
In central Missouri yesterday people reported hearing a loud boom and then there was a 2.0 earthquake.
Does seem odd doesn't it?

No. Earthquakes are often associated with loud booms. The earth shifting can make a lot of noise. If you take a look here, at the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Map centered around that region, you'll see that earthquakes there are actually fairly common. That area is right on the New Madrid Fault.

[edit on 5/19/2006 by cmdrkeenkid]