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Medium-sized asteroids hit Earth frequently without major devastation, but there is more to an asteroid impact than meets the eye. Impacts can cause other hazards that can last for years, and a planetary defense preparedness strategy should address not just the initial impact but also these second-order “cascading” hazards.
Dr. Tim Titus giving Asteroid Cascading Hazards presentation (with a focus on Texas and Nigeria) at the UN facilities in Vienna, Austria.
"Cascading Hazards are any hazard that creates conditions that are conducive to follow on hazards” said Dr. Timothy N. Titus, Research Space Scientists at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, “like wildfires, debris flows, flooding, earthquakes, and landslide dams.”
Asteroids can impact anywhere on Earth, and can cause different secondary hazards depending on where they impact. Large enough impacts can have global effects on climate.
One way that scientists can study and prepare for longer-term cascading hazards is through the use of analogs. Scientists study common natural hazards that occur on Earth (such as volcanoes, wildfires, hurricanes ) and use what they learn to model cascading impact hazards that include early warnings, preparation, and disaster mitigation.
“Preparedness is key,” said Dr. Titus. “For the future, it’s better to have a mitigation strategy in hand rather than to wait until there is an actual crisis to develop a plan. ”
Dr. Titus is first author on a new paper titled “A review of common natural disasters as analogs for asteroid impact effects and cascading hazards, ” co-written with three other USGS scientists: J.B. Sankey, L. Mastin, and F. Rengers. D. Robertson is from NASA Ames Research Center. The goal of this work was to understand the cascading effects of an asteroid impact.
Published by the Natural Hazards journal on February 6, 2023, the paper is free to all, which discusses what these longer-term cascading hazards are, what scientists are going to do about them in the future, and what is being done now.
“I’m glad to see more and more research being published Open Access,” said Janet Richie, cartographic technician at Astrogeology. “ It’s a positive step towards equitable learning for humans from all walks of life.”
Want to know more? Get “A review of common natural disasters as analogs for asteroid impact effects and cascading hazards” here.
For this abstract, we have selected an impact location, consistent with the PDC2021 initial scenario [1], in the San Juan Mountains, in southwestern Colorado. This is a low-density population area but is part of the watershed system within the Colorado River basin, a major source for water and power for the southwestern United States. Several large cities and major airports are...
Authors
Timothy N. Titus, D. Ross Robertson, Joel B. Sankey, Larry G. Mastin
The United Nations observes Asteroid Day every year on June 30 to raise awareness of the risks of asteroid impacts, coordinating events worldwide to share knowledge. Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory and Meteor Crater will be hosting events, and although USGS Astrogeology isn’t hosting an event, our scientists work tirelessly to understand hazards and mitigation for asteroid impacts.
For this abstract, we have selected an impact location, consistent with the PDC2021 initial scenario [1], in the San Juan Mountains, in southwestern Colorado. This is a low-density population area but is part of the watershed system within the Colorado River basin, a major source for water and power for the southwestern United States. Several large cities and major airports are...
Authors
Timothy N. Titus, D. Ross Robertson, Joel B. Sankey, Larry G. Mastin
The United Nations observes Asteroid Day every year on June 30 to raise awareness of the risks of asteroid impacts, coordinating events worldwide to share knowledge. Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory and Meteor Crater will be hosting events, and although USGS Astrogeology isn’t hosting an event, our scientists work tirelessly to understand hazards and mitigation for asteroid impacts.
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