posted
BoredCrow's post reminded me I wanted to ask yous guys:
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.
posted
Search for Extinction-Level Events, and watch the movie Deep Impact. I don't know why but I really love that movie.
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.
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.
posted
be sure to check out On The Beach for a kind of different view on the end of the world. I love Dystopien stuff.
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posted
I have a friend who likes to have the moon crash into the earth whenever he can't figure out how to end a story. Don't know if that would coun't as a natural disaster though.
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.
posted
Consider the Roche Limit, where a celestial body held together by its own mass is torn apart by a companion celestial body's tidal forces exceeding the first body's gravitational bonding.
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.
posted
I once saw a program on the Bermuda Triangle that mentioned methane ice. If your world is pulling apart, perhaps the disruption could release so much methane ice (or something similar) that all remaining (relevant) life would die, either from lack of oxygen or overheating. I have no idea how long extinction would take; however, neither would your readers.
posted
I don't know if you mean a literal "pulling itself apart," but BoredCrow and extrinsic both hit on one thing you could use. The moon most likely originated as another planet (or at least a very large celestial body). Sometime in the Earth's early formation, this body is believed to have collided with the Earth and was basically pulverized taking part of the Earth with it. Over millions of years the pieces coalesced back into what we see now. I believe there are videos available. I have one on DVD.
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.
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I remember reading somewhere that a period of heavy volcanic activity can produce enough ash plume, CO2 atmosphere, and cloud cover to sucessfully trigger another ice age. Such heavy volcanic activity would likely be the end result of another catastrophic event, however (such as the aforementioned meteor impact).
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.
posted
I'm not very sharp on a lot of science, but isn't the sun scheduled to be upgraded to a red giant? I imagine that could kill all life on the earth. What time period is your setting - also, could someone (somehow) accelerate the sun's changing. What degree of sci-fi are you willing to stretch for?
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quote:but isn't the sun scheduled to be upgraded to a red giant?
In about 4 to 5 billion years, yeah it is. It'll grow large enough to encompass the orbits of all the planets potentially out to Mars, however there is some contention as to whether the core planets will still be around by then (due to losing a lot of mass in the process of turning into a red giant, most of the planets will likely be thrown out into interstellar orbits).
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.
quote:...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.
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A world "pulling itself apart" is not a logical description. Might it be pushing itself apart instead?
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.
posted
All one needs is for the mass of a fast spinning planet, like Earth, to become imbalanced. If the imbalance is high enough of elevation, that mass will keep getting higher due to centerfugal forces until it overcame gravitational pulls and the resistance of the materials it is connected to. It would then fly off the suface and into space. We are not talking small masses either. I am talking about continent sized pieces. Not all the material would fly off, so some would fall back to the surface to do damage, and those could be serious sized pieces.
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.
quote: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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