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Well, it depends on the size of the meteorite you're talking about. If you want to cause a small crater, then go anywhere from a few meters across to a small house in diameter. If you want to cause some minor effects, get something from the size of a large house to 150ft in diameter (Meteor Crater in Arizona.) If you want to cause some major effects to mass extinction, use a meteor the size of 1 mile to 20 miles in diameter or a comet. (One that killed the dinosaurs.) If you want to cause a cataclysmic explosion which can have a shock wave reach Earth's antipodal point, use something +60mi in diameter. (Shockwave goes all the way around the Earth.) If you want to completely destroy the Earth, use a asteroid the size of Venus or larger.
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
Wiki User
∙ 10y agoMost cause none at all, because they are tiny pieces of ice, rock or dust that burn up in the Earth's atmosphere and there is nothing left. Very few survive the Earth's atmosphere. Of those that do, most will cause no damage, being too small or because they will land in the sea or isolated areas. Extremely rarely a big one will land and cause some damage like a crater, such as the famous one in Arizona. There is also a famous one that struck a remote part or Russia, known as the Tunguska meteor that knocked a large area of forest. There have been some very large ones through ancient history that caused greater damage, but all of these are extremely rare. So we can go out and look into the night sky and enjoy them at no risk whatsoever.
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoA meteorite is a space rock that has survived passing through the Earth's atmosphere and falling to the Earth. The effect on the Earth is generally minimal, but depends on the size; at least a dozen times in the past 100 million years, large objects have struck the Earth with devastating effect. We're fairly certain that a large comet or asteroid struck the Earth about 65 million years ago, wiping out 75% of all life on Earth, including all the dinosaurs.
Arizona's Meteor Crater may simply be the most obvious, but other impactors may have caused the Great Flood of The Bible (a strike in the Indian ocean that created the Burckle crater on the seafloor), and killed off the woolly mammoths and mastodons 14,000 years ago and caused the Younger Dryas mini-ice age.
The Earth is struck by tens of thousands of meteoroids each day; most burn up passing through the atmosphere. But there are still thousands of meteorites littering the ground, especially in the Outback of Australia, Antarctica and the deserts of the American Southwest.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoDamage done by a meteorite can vary depending on size. A large enough meteorite could cause large mammals to go extinct, a large meteorite could also leave a giant impact crater or destroy infrastructure, small meteorites may do no damage at all.
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoMany larger meteors explode in airbursts while passing through the atmosphere, and these generally don't cause much damage. However, the Tunguska meteorite (there is still some debate about exactly WHAT it was) did cause an explosion equivalent to a nuclear bomb, and flattened dozens of square miles of Siberian forests. (There were no good records of who lived where back then, so we have no idea how many people may have been killed; not many, but probably a few.)
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoThe meteorite falls to Earth and lands on the surface.
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Fragment that enters the earths atmosphere but does not hit earth?
Meteor. Meteorites are the ones that do hit Earth.
What is the percentage of an asteroid hitting earth in the next 100 years?
An asteroid or meteor that would cause climatic change, about 1 in 600,000 to 1 in 10,000,000.
Do meteors hit Jupiter?
yes, Numerically-speaking, the orbits of meteoroids dominate our knowledge of the orbital parameters of Earth-crossing small bodies: the meteoroid orbit database outstrips the numbers of observed Earth-crossing asteroids and comets by over two orders of magnitude. Whilst it is often imagined that small meteoroids are predominantly derived from comets through stream formation, and thus must have comet-like orbits, in fact the majority of observed meteoroid orbits are more similar to those of Apollo and Aten asteroids, with small, low-inclination orbits. In all about 69 000 meteoroid orbits are available from the IAU Meteor Data Center in Lund, Sweden, having been measured in various optical and radar observation programs based in the U.S.A., Canada, the former Soviet Union, Somalia, the Czech Republic, Japan, and Australia. Depending upon the detection method used, the original meteoroids producing the observed meteoric phenomena range in size from 100 m to 10 cm. Here the raw orbital, radiant and speed distributions are presented for the major surveys, a common format being used so that they may be intercompared such that general conclusions may be drawn, and the differences between the survey results identified. These data, collected over the past several decades, provide an important source of information on the origin and evolution of the small bodies in the solar system. information by springer link.com
What is a rock that falls from outer space?
If it burns up in the atmosphere, it is a meteor. If it manages to make it through the atmosphere and land on Earth, it is a meteorite. A really bright meteor is called a bollide.
What causes meteor?
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all of them disintegrate and never hit the Earth's surface. Intense or unusual meteor showers are known as meteor outbursts and meteor storms, which may produce greater than 1,000 meteors an hour.[1]The Meteor Data Center lists about 600 suspected meteor showers of which about 100 are well established.[2]
Can a meteor hit the earth?
Yes. It is a fairly common occurrence. Most impact events are too small to cause any significant damage.
Does global warming cause meteor showers?
No connection. Meteor showers are debris from space striking the earth.
How does a meteor shower occur?
Meteor showers occur when a meteor comes too close to the earth and gets drawn in by the earth's gravity. The light you see trailing behind the meteor (shooting star) is Ice melting off of it from the sun's heat.
What is the difference of a meteor and a earth grazing meteor?
A meteor is a lump of rock in space. When one of these pieces of rock comes close to the earth it may burn up in the atmosphere as a shooting star. An earth grazing meteor is a meteor that has come close enough to our atmosphere that it starts to burn up, but will still pass us by as the angle is too shallow. It will go back out into space having been deflected by earths gravity.
How does a meteor apperoch earth?
A meteoroid travels through the solar system. If it comes close enough to the earth then the earth's gravitational attraction will pull it towards the earth. If the meteoroid get pulled into the earth's atmosphere it becomes a meteor, and by this time it is already captured by earth's gravity.
What happens to a planets crust when it is hit by a meteor?
Well how big is this meteor? Normal meteorites that hit the Earth do not cause any damage to the Earth's crust. It would have to dive many, many miles to even touch the crust. Our many layers between the lithosphere and the crust usually protects us from damaging the actual crust.
What things cause rapid change the Earth's surface?
earthquaketornadoeshurricanesvolcanic eruptionstsunamilarge meteor impact
What is negative about satellites?
If a meteor was coming directly at a satellite, it could cause destruction, which can affect Earth.
What meteor fell into earth?
meteor Chase
What damage would a baseball size meteor cause to earth?
If a baseball size meteor entered our atmosphere, it would get burned up and not hit the ground. Most meteors that strike the Earth hit at around 20 km/s, therefore if a baseball sized meteor actually hit the ground, it would release roughly 10^9 joules of energy. That's roughly equal to the energy released by the explosion of 1000 kg of TNT.
When a meteor hits the Earth it may form this?
When a meteor hits the Earth, it may form a meteorite, a crater, or airburst. A meteorite is a piece of rock or metal that has fallen to Earth from space. MeteoriteOpens in a new window Meteorite A crater is a large, bowl-shaped depression in the ground that is formed when a meteor impacts the Earth. CraterOpens in a new window Crater An airburst is a phenomenon that occurs when a meteor explodes in the atmosphere before it reaches the ground. AirburstOpens in a new window Airburst The type of impact feature that is formed depends on the size and speed of the meteor, as well as the composition of the ground that it hits. Smaller meteors that hit the Earth at high speeds tend to vaporize completely, leaving no impact feature behind. Larger meteors that hit the Earth at slower speeds may form craters. The largest craters on Earth are thought to have been formed by asteroids, which are much larger than meteors. Airbursts are most likely to occur when a meteor enters the Earth's atmosphere at a very high speed. The heat generated by the meteor's passage through the atmosphere can cause it to explode before it reaches the ground. Airbursts can cause significant damage, but they do not typically leave any impact feature behind. The impact of a meteor on Earth can have a number of consequences, including: The formation of a crater or airburst The release of dust and debris into the atmosphere The potential for widespread damage or destruction The impact of a meteor on Earth is a rare event, but it is a potential hazard that should be taken into account.
Can you mention any big pit caused by a meteor?
There is the famous crater in Arizona, known as Meteor Crater or Barringer Crater. It is not actually meteors that cause craters. Meteors are destroyed in the Earth's atmosphere. If they survive the Earth's atmosphere and then land on Earth, they are known as meteorites. So it is meteorites that actually cause craters.
