I have a world that is supposed to be pulling itself apart.
I've looked on all of the Myan Calendar and Book of Revelations websites to try to figure out the best sequence of events for a world that ends over a period of about a week by natural disaster.
I'm looking for a theortical site that would show a sequence of events that would lead to extinction of all life on this world (it isn't ours, so natural laws can be beant but not broken) and any ideas you may have starting with a bright sunny day and ending with those who can evacuate, realizing they absolutely have to or they will die.
Most use meteors. Not saying it's good or bad, but that's what most theories go by.
Of course there are medical thrillers that use crazy fast-moving illnesses, usually leaving a few immune survivors to combat the zombies that the illness produces, LOL. Andromeda Strain, I am Legend.
There are some doomsday scenarios painted by Global Warming activists that are probably worth looking into - sudden melting of polar caps, global flooding...monster storms that kill all in their paths, etc.
Good luck trashing your world!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky
His work is based on the concept that our myths were based on first hand reports of world wide extinction periods. At least the last three happened within the memory of mankind.
At the time he published them, they were absolutely impossible. Now with the T-K boundry, and the impacts on Jupiter, everything he suggested is quite plausible. It will give you a starting point on what to look for.
And what do you mean by 'world ending'? The death of the human race, or the destruction of the planet into something unlivable by any life? The world would end pretty quickly if all fresh water were to disappear.
Any of a multitude of possible reasons why a previously stable, orbiting body might get drawn closer to a primary might be what went wrong, or a complex combination of reasons. Regardless, the world would come apart inside the Roche Limit.
On this page (10 things you don't know about the earth), item number 10 talks about how destroying the earth is hard.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080528140255.htm
If you mean a figurative "pulling itself apart," I'd go with Snapper's suggestion.
Meteors are, of course, one of the most prominent methods imagined for mass extinction. Supervolcanoes and Quasars vaporizing our atmosphere are others. Then there is the Krypton destruction where people destroy there own planet. Global nuclear war or even mini-black holes with vivacious appetites suggest other means.
I cannot speak for the Mayans, but Revelations is believed by many (with whom I agree) to be the same story told over and over throughout that book using a didactic teaching method. Though it related primarily to the people at that time, it shares an apocalyptic concurrance with end times prophesy, very similar to the book of Daniel. There have been several books and movies by the LaHayes on this subject.
I always hesitate to link to wikipedia here, but beneath their Extinction Event article, there's a whole list of plausible (and not-so-plausible) possibilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event
In addition, here is listed the "Big Five", where are the real-life most devastating extinctions of life that have occurred on earth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Five
EDIT: If you're looking for something different, Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question" is perhaps the slowest-moving extinction storyline ever.
[This message has been edited by Rhaythe (edited September 15, 2008).]
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but isn't the sun scheduled to be upgraded to a red giant?
Should the earth remain in the Red Giant Sun's orbit, most likely the atmosphere will turn into a Venus-like one, and after a while, will be blown away completely due to stellar winds. Before the sun dies away completely or collapses to form a white dwarf, the earth will look like Mercury.
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...also, could someone (somehow) accelerate the sun's changing.
Felt like commenting on this one too.
Not likely. It comes to a matter of sheer scale. All of our nuclear weapons... and probably ever fissable material on the planet... would still only amount to dropping a pebble on a pond.
Theoretically, there are some events that could alter the sun's life cycle. Some possibilities are wandering stellar singularies... such as a q-ball or a traveling black hole... or perhaps the whole Nemesis star theory if it were to somehow seep mass away from the sun.
A fun movie to watch concerning this idea is Sunshine, which came out a year or two ago. They play with the "what if" ideas about the sun suffering from an early death.
The best match I can think of for your description is to have your world destroyed by tidal forces of another body that passes nearby but does not collide with it. It's a good idea.
Take a look at The Star by HG Wells. Short but fitting for this conversation.
The cause of the raising of the mass and the mass flying off might be separated by centuries. It depends on how close to the critical point the imbalance is at the begining to tell when it will fling off the suface. In any case, any movement the mass makes would make the entire planet shake.
What would devistate or eliminate life on the planet is that there would be a serious hole left behind, and large planets with strong gravity will want to return to a roundish shape. There is going to be mass moving into the hole, coming from somewhere, which will cause running cracks across the surface of the planet.
The T-K boundry, that caused the end of the dinosaurs, would be a minor event in comparison. It would be impossible to eliminate all life, but likely only bacterial life, and life that is microscopic, will likely survive. A patch of moss here, a blade of grass there, a bug over there, is all that will be left after the event if they survived at all.
Seas falling into the mantle would fill the sky with steam, "volcanic smoke" would also fill the air, causing acid rains and block out the sun for weeks or even months.
The debris that did not reach escape volocity would eventually rain back down to the surface, and some of them would be as big as the one that caused the T-K boundry destruction. It might take centuries to clear all of these out of the atmosphere.
Then you have the question of the orbits of anything that left the planet's gravity. They will, by nature, return near the place they left. If they are going fast enough or pass another planet to change their orbit, they would leave the solar system. If not, they might return to the planet's orbit. If the timing is wrong, those fragments will also return to the planet's surface and could do damage.
There is also the likelyhood that the orbit of the planet is going to change. The mass will cause it to be flung onto a different orbit. This could cause it to come closer to the star and heat up, or go deeper into space and cool down. It could cause the planet to pass near another planet and that could change both their orbits some.
I do not know how much life or signs of life will be found when things finally stabilize.
The cause of the imbalance is a tougher thing. It would take a lot of energy. The passage of a planetoid, moon or bigger, at atmospheric scraping close, might be enough. The tidal uplift at that point could just be enough to pull the surface up high enough that the spin will exceed the gravitational pull. LIfe would take a serious beating during that event too.
Out of time
Let me know if any of this help. I can add more details if needed.
[This message has been edited by tnwilz (edited September 19, 2008).]
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...and most celebrities would commit suicide in mass numbers...
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Did I see someone mention politics around here?
Busted...
[This message has been edited by tnwilz (edited September 19, 2008).]
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Did I see someone mention politics around here?
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According to the media in the last few weeks, a great end-of-the-world scenario would be to have McCain elected president and then die just a few weeks later. The prospect is so horrific, it's thought the media and most celebrities would commit suicide in mass numbers rather than face systematic annihilation of humanity that would surely follow.
I agree completely. And I have my cyanide in a bottle next to me at all times.
Second (and more relevantly)
I think the easiest thing to do is have a cosmic event that effects either the sun or the earth. An incoming meteor is the easy way out. But what about a gravitational body that effects earth's orbit, or something that could damage the star?
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If your looking for a good movie on mass panic, I believe War of the Worlds got it right.
Er...which version?