If a large Asteriod Struck earth....?

Question

would that make the entire earth flooding with lava? since the crust is so thin and the asteriod might penetrate through it and lava will come pouring out and take over the surface

Large as in a size of a city!

Answer 1

Depends on what you mean by "large".... but any asteroid impact would cause a great deal of damage... and a very large one could mean the end of life on Earth.

Here are several articles that give detailed info on what might happen if an asteroid impacted the Earth.

Apophis to strike Earth Friday 13th 2036
http://www.rnews.com/Story_2004.cfm?ID=47068&rnews_story_type=60&category=10

Can we survive the next major impact?
http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Earth%20impact.htm

Article about a small one that could hit in 2880
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1910518.stm

The National Space Society's view on Asteroids and possible impacts
http://www.nss.org/settlement/asteroids/index.html
(they talk about both the Promise of wealth from asteroids and the threat of impacts... interesting reading :))

Answer 2

Your question is rather vague and hard to answer because you used the word LARGE to describe the asteroid which might strike the Earth. How large is LARGE? That is the crucial question, and that is what might determine the result...

Large like a school bus?
Large like a Football or Soccer Field?
Large like the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty?
or Large like the City of Washington DC?
or Large like the State of Delaware?

The Earth's crust is thick in some places and thin in others.
Thick and thin are also relatively vague terms so I will add some terms to clarify that. Thin crust is about 5 miles thick.
Thick crust is 20 to 30 miles thick. So, it is very important to specify how big the asteriod was (and its composition) as well as where the asteroid struck the Earth in order for someone to be able to suggest what the result might be.

Given nothing to go on in your question, let us suppose the asteroid was the size of a school bus, made up of iron and bronze metal, and it hit anywhere on Earth. the result would most likely be a huge crater and a monster dust plume that extended far out into the upper atmosphere and blocked out the Sun's rays for a week or more. No penetration of the Earth's crust would occur, no lava flows from inside the Earth, etc. However, there would be total devastation in the near vicinity of the impact crater.

Please feel free to submit a more detailed question later.

Answer 3

The old professor says: The Earth would behave just like your fluid filled body (also with a thin skin). Any magma (lava at surface) like blood in a flesh wound, would solidify and plug the opening...as blood solidifies (clots) and seals the wound. This happens eventually to all volcanoes...and the remnant is called a plug. Devil's Tower in Wyoming is a good example of such a plug.

It has happened in the past (astroidal impact on Earth), and no doubt will do so again. Hopefully not during our lifetime. Several large filled fossil craters on the Earth are well documented by geologists and many solidified lava crater floors are seen on our own moon as well.

Answer 4

No, not the entire earth, nor even very much of it. Even if the asteroid was big enough to breach the crust and reach the mantle, the lava there is not under pressure. It would probably ooze up, and spread out a bit, but stop when it began to solidify. A previous answerer has a very good comparison with a flesh wound which bleeds for a little, then scabs over.

Answer 5

A large asteroid has already struck the earth and that didn't happen. The Gulf of Mexico was formed after the earth was hit with an asteroid about 10km across...almost 6 miles across. Pretty frigging big.

http://www.valdostamuseum.org/hamsmith/EarthCollisions.html

It would also have to travel through over 1500 miles of solid mantle before hitting the molten outer core.

Answer 6

Depends on how large of a meteor we're talking about. I think that a meteor about 1 mile across could wipe us out like the dinosaurs.

It would have to be a SOLID meteor too as many of them are porous and hollow inside. THOSE are they ones likely to break up in the atmosphere.

An impact like that would flatten a huge area and then even if you weren't somewhere to be effected by the impact, the rising cloud of dust that comes after would block out the sun, kill plants, drop temperatures, and well I think you get the picture...

Answer 7

I think if the asteroid hit anywhere near the super volcano in Yellowstone.

I don't think the whole Earth would flood with lava, but it would add to the devastation of the impact.

Answer 8

there substitute into one that hit Siberia in 18th or nineteenth century. Given a 22 years little while, no technologies might nicely be stepped forward to deflect it. Did you spot the photograph of Shoemaker Asteroids hitting Jupiter 4 circumstances? that is not a rely of what people think of.

Answer 9

i think we'd be all screwed but all the lava under the earth's crust wouldn't come rushing out because of gravity

Answer 10

doubt it....heat would seal it up but it would send millions of tons of earth into the atmosphere and cause quakes world wide