Re: Comet impact in the Eastern United States - Feasibility of Evacuation

Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> How many of these are sterilization events in the strict sense?  Would
>> that gamma ray burst kill off creatures at deep-ocean vents or
>> microbes living in rock?
>
>Runaway greenhouse would probably do it, since the entire crust would 
>wind up hotter than the boiling point. Earth would be Venus Lite.

Then the thermophilic bacteria get THEIR chance to sweep out from the
ocean
vents and radiate.

>Gamma ray bursts are overrated in terms of sterilization power, IMO. The 
>gamma rays can't penetrate the atmosphere so they won't cause any direct 
>effect, they get absorbed in the upper layers.

.... Someone isn't thinking about the same gamma rays that physicists use.
The
atmosphere is by no means a perfect defense (tm White Wolf) against gamma
rays;
it absorbs some, and some get through, and some cause huge particle
showers
because they pass near enough to a gas-atom nucleus to interact with it.

Perhaps you're thinking about ultraviolet rays, absorbed (mostly) by the
ozone
layer?

Now it would be fairly difficult for the gamma rays to penetrate too
deeply
into the CRUST of the Earth. But the atmosphere is not our Defense ****eld
for
them, as such.

Dave
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