For some time, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) has been considering the consequences of a large
asteroid impact on the earth.
As part of this effort, your team has been
asked to consider the effects of such an impact were the asteroid to land
in Antarctica. There are
concerns that an impact there could have considerably different
consequences than one striking elsewhere on the planet.
You are to assume that an asteroid is on the
order of 1000m in diameter, and that it strikes the Antarctic continent
directly at the South Pole.
Your team has been asked to provide an
assessment of the impact of such an asteroid.
In particular, NASA would like an estimate of the amount and
location of likely human casualties from this impact, an estimate of the
damage done to the food production regions in the oceans of the southern
hemisphere, and an estimate of possible coastal flooding caused by
large-scale melting of the Antarctic polar ice sheet. |