But this is the very scenario my co-writer and I have used to base our futuristic novels on in the Higher ground series, which you can see on the sidebar. I don't want it to happen, believe me. But, if many large asteroids bombarded Earth, who would survive? Those people lucky enough to be able to reach higher ground when the floods came and the fault lines cracked and opened up? How would any survivors cope? Would it lead to the end of society as we know it? In the worst light, the largest of these objects could lead to extinction if they struck the Earth.
The US-based group, which includes a number of former Nasa astronauts, hopes the visualization will show impacts are more common than we think.
The presentation leans on data collected by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. The CTBTO operates a network of sensors to detect clandestine atom bomb detonations. Between 2000 and 2013, this infrasound system listed 26 major explosions on Earth. None were caused by A-bombs. All were the result of asteroid strikes. And just one of these events was detected in advance, and then by only a matter of hours.
But some asteroids slip through to land close to habitation. Last year, a 20m-wide object ripped across the sky above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. I blogged about it at the time. Scary! However, the event itself was quite small compared with some of the incomers recorded in the past.
Data suggests that Earth is hit by a multi-megaton asteroid about every 100 years. Researchers from the B612 Foundation may have found a little over 90% of the true goliaths hurtling through space. The good news is that none should hit us anytime soon.
My rough draft already exists about a group of people living in England during the last days before a bombardment of comets strike Earth.
I leave you with a small excerpt from the beginning of the published Wind Over Troubled Waters.
Journal of Tallulah McBride
March 23, 2027
As the world ends, I’ve assembled my vellum and proper ink and pen. Vellum lasts longer than paper. I don’t think anyone will survive the flood and devastation. The water is rising higher all the time and I haven’t seen the sun for forty-eight hours. No light penetrates my room. I’m writing by candlelight. I’m not sure why I’m writing, except that it might help me get a grip on what happened. And just maybe, someone will survive and read this journal.
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Corn World. Britland. Far in the future after the great flood.
Chapter One
On the bed next to her mother, Cerridwen snuggled further into her sleeping furs. Wind roared over the town. Rain lashed against the thick wooden walls of the house nestled halfway down a steep slope above the quiet village. Built in the before-times, when men knew how to construct things properly, the house resisted continual rain. A lightning flash lit up the small room. Thunder roared. In the cot beside her, Mother whimpered and turned in her sleep.