What would be worse, a three mile wide rock from space hitting the earth on land or in the ocean?
106400
A 3 mile wide rock hitting the ocean could cause extreme waves to travel at 6000 km/h and as high as 5 km up in the air. Such waves would flood the entire Earth, leaving total destruction. \n\nIf it hits land, then a huge earthquake would be there and it would be like a wave on land, and maybe only a continent would see the destruction.  However, this will also cause dust to rise in the stratosphere and cover the entire Earth in complete darkness.\n\nAlso note that before the rock hits, as it enters our atmosphere at 40000 km/h, it will cause a shock wave so strong that possibly the entire Earth would be destroyed.  So if that's the case, it wouldn't really matter where it hits, because total destruction occurs before the rock hits the surface.
605569
You could die if it erupted
277663
More or less the same kind of damage as if it hits land.\n\nEver done a belly-flop in the pool?  Imagine doing that at 150 mph.  The water is more or less solid at that speed.
858875
First off, much of the interior of the earth is molten after you get about 30K down, so you couldn't really drill a hole through it. But for arguments sake, let's say you built a super-strong tube out of some nano-material and inserted it through the center of the Earth from pole to pole. Now you drop your stone.\n\nThe stone would fall towards the center of gravity, the center of the Earth. It would accelerate as it fell, so it would presumably fall past the center and head towards the South Pole. As it headed towards the South Pole, the gravitation pull would slow it down. Would it manage to to escape the Earth's gravity? No.\n\nConsider that the stone being at the top of the North Pole represents "potential kinetic energy". You could have generated energy from its fall much like a dam creates energy from falling water. Instead, it fell freely towards the center of the Earth, and all its potential kinetic energy has been turned into velocity. That velocity can't be enough to go any further than it fell (that is, out of the South Pole) because where would the excess energy come from?\n\nNow when the stone is at the center of the Earth, it has no potential kinetic energy. It can't fall anywhere, because every direction is up. All of its potential kinetic energy has been turned into velocity and so it should "fall up" the distance that it fell down. When it reaches the South Pole, it will have no velocity left, but it will have the same potential kinetic energy as when it started to fall. So you might expect it to fall from pole to pole indefinitely.\n\nHowever, if the tube is full of air, we have a problem. Falling objects normally have a "terminal velocity", which is the speed at which the air resistance stops the object from accelerating further. The air pressure at the center of the Earth would be enormous (air would probably be a liquid at these pressures and temperatures), as it would be subject to the weight of the air both north and south of the hole pulled in towards the center. The increasing density of air would slow the object as it fell to where it had little momentum as it approached the center. It might overshoot somewhat, but friction would continue to slow it until it was drawn to the center of gravity.\n\nNow if the tube contained a perfect vaccuum, the object should continue to fall from pole to pole indefinitely...except there's the problem that the stone would hit the sides of the hole due to the rotation of the Earth. See Foucault's Pendulum. This would slow it down, causing it again to settle at the center of the Earth.\n\nThere you have it. No need to drill through the center of the Earth now.
315970
Dig a big hole under the U.S. and watch it fall into the ocean. Problem solved.
857828
1- yup, Earth\n2 - The sun is about 400 times the diameter of the moon, but is also about 400 times farther away\n3 - Cosmic rays ( a form of electromagnetic energy that would sterilize the surface of our planet within a few months if not blocked ), and meteors, thousands of which would hit us every hour.
73086
One lunar distance is still a reasonable safe distance.  There have been some that have been a lot closer, within geostationary range (approx. 22,800 miles). Yes, any chunk of space rock will be preturb as it is more influenced by another gravitational mass (Earth, Moon, even the Sun and Jupiter), but by the orbital data on this particular rock and the angle it is coming in on, I doubt the influence would be remotely enough to put it on collision course with Earth for any time soon.
1126071
Ok.. listen.. you have to think about this one a little bit\n\nIF everytime a lighting hit the water, everything got electrocuted, then there would be no fish in the sea.. so people that said that are not thinking right.. \n\nnow.. how far do you have to be\nLighting will try to reach ground right? thats the way it works? so it will find the fastest way down.. now Im going out on a limb here, but salt water conducts electricity pretty damn well.. probably better than a human body.. so my guess is, lightning will go straight down into the ocean floor.. \n\nnow.. this doesnt mean you wont die if its near you, because some electric current might choose a different path, but I would say if you are outside of 100 meters you would be ok. But I would get out of the water when a big storm is coming.. not because of lightning, but because the waves might be too strong to swim in
10785
Nothing in particular. There is a big 'boom' (with no sound because there is no air to vibrate) and there is a lot of light and a release of radiation, but that is about it. Basically, take an explosion on earth, and take away the earth, and voila.
583540
I depends on the type of asteroid, a solid one we can deflect, but if it is an aglommerate of space debris, it will be like trying to avoid a shot gun blast.
559137
1. If the Earth's rotation INSTANTLY stopped, everything not fixed to the Earth would continue to rotate around at the same velocity that they were before due to conservation of momentum. To us it would feel like a giant earthquake where the Earth would suddenly start "moving" in the opposite direction of the rotation. Buildings would collapse, the oceans would wash up onto land in large tidal waves, and there would be a large atmospheric wind shear at the surface. (The atmosphere is not attached to the planet either and would keep rotating too). Since we are traveling at about 460 m/s at the equator (about 1000 miles per hour) we would be tossed pretty far. (We wouldn't fly off the earth, though. Escape velocity is much higher.) As my officemate said when I told him about this question "We would be thrown into the wall at 1.5 times the speed of sound as the building was tipped off its foundation." \n\n2. Seismic waves from the impact would travel through the earth causing massive earthquakes. Depending on the size and velocity of the impactor, the earth might even break apart. \n\n3. Much of the atmosphere would be boiled off. A fireball would expand outward destroying material in it's path and polluting the rest of the atmosphere. \n\nThose things would probably kill all life and level everything on the Earth's surface! It would be much worse than the extinction event that may have contributed to dinosaur extinction. \n\nIf we were magically able to stop the Earth with no bad consequences, life on a non-rotating or retrograde (backwards) rotating planet would be very strange. \n\n* On a retrograde rotating planet, the sun and all the stars would rise in the west and set in the east. \n\n* If the rotation was very slow, the day could be very long. This would have a huge effect on plant and animal life on the earth, some of which could not survive many days with no sunlight. \n\nIf there are any physics enthusiasts out there, from knowledge of the mass of the earth, the radius of the earth, the earth's escape velocity (use as impactor velocity), the rotation period of the earth, and the average density of the earth you can calculate a very rough estimate of the size of an impactor needed to stop the earth's rotation. If I assume that the earth collides with an object just sitting in its orbit right at the edge at the equator I get a rough radius of 1600 km for the needed size. In reality, you would probably need something much, much bigger. There are not any objects of this size in the solar system that we don't know about, which means that this scenario can't really happen.
59568
The earth spins at about 1100 miles per hour at the equator (26,000 miles in 24 hrs) so stopping fast would be very distasterous to all living things. Remember, everything not locked down on earth would try to keep going 1100 mph! Imagine the ocean water going 1100 mph & slamming all the coastlines! From a human perspective, it would be very exciting for a second or two, then we'd all be flying with debris all around us that suddenly is going 1100 mph. I'd imagine lots of trees & rocks & bricks & wood & cars & metal, it would not be fun... Eventually we'd land on the ground or hit a mountain or something that stopped along with the earth. We'd then go up to heaven or nirvana or whatever religion place we go when we die. I would think things like seeds, bacteria & bugs would survive - but I'm only guessing given the way all the weather, land & seas would be changed. I doubt gravity would change very much but nobody would be alive to check...
440116
Jungle. It is much more dangerous.
375320
a) Earth's surface is made up of about a dozen enormous slabs, or plates. The slow movement of these plates across the surface is called continental drift, or plate tectonics. \n\nb) the outermost level of the land or sea; "earthquakes originate far below the surface"; "three quarters of the Earth's surface is covered by water" \n\nc) Is a kind of layer  (a relatively thin sheetlike expanse or region lying over or under another )
660044
if you are talking about the geological subject, them im thinking its a ticking time bomb that will errupt into something catastrophic one day. it could be far far into the future but we really need to consider the potential damage. At the same time it will be forming new land (though that takes a while) and the plates will probably start causing more and more serious earthquakes in places that have never felt them before, therefore noone will really no what to do.. in short, were all doomed. Seriously, i hope not, but its kinda like when people build condos on the beach, ur taking an awfully big risk of natures fury to take it out like a toothpick. but theres not much anyone can do other than advise against it if they see potential activity
658854
Well if you passed a large current through the ocean and you made the water a positive charge, and you threw in a magnetic asteroid rock that also had a positive charge it would not go into the water at all but shoot back into space or hover over the water depending on its weight and acceleration figure.! If the rock was heavy enough so that gravity outweighed the magnetic microcosmic charges between the rock and the ocean electromacnect fields would be surrounding the rock along with air, kinda like a mini lightning storm, or those glass balls with electricity inside and you put you fingers to and the electricity moves. Anyway when it does go down it will part the ocean so much so that not only would it be an bioscopic disaster for all beach dwelling bionic creature, it could also cause tidal waves, melting of the snow gaps and thus global warming, and a hole in the atmosphere. Im afraid the consequences of throwing that rock in would be devastating! Please Dont do it! And dont try it at home aswell! If you must go overseas and throw it in someone elses ocean! Heidi
652500
Answer A) Small size & rocky surfaces