- 7,404
- 3,288
The Wikipedia article on the Chicxulub crater uses some updated estimates for the kinetic energy of the impactor. Scroll down to the Impact Specifics section.
According to this reference link, the impact energy was in the range of 1.3e24 J to 5.8e25 J. That's ~310 Teratons to ~13.8 Petatons.
The latter seems like a real high end. However, the low end is far more plausible. And using this impact calculator and playing around with the values (using 10,000 metre projectile diameter) does also give yield estimates well beyond just 100 Teratons. I'm getting impactor energy estimates all the way from 300 Teratons to 600 Teratons for carving out a crater 180 to 200 km in diameter.
Proposal:
Per Andytrenom's suggestions:
Tier: At least High 6-B, possibly High 6-A
Attack Potency: At least Large Country level, possibly Multi-Continent level (Recent estimates peg the impact energy at 310 Teratons to 13.8 Petatons of TNT equivalent. Impact event caused rapid acidification of the Earth's oceans and long-lasting global climate changes and ultimately caused a global extinction event which wiped out 75% of all species on Earth)
Speed: At least High Hypersonic to High Hypersonic+ (Impactor would have entered Earth's atmosphere at velocities of potentially tens of kilometres per second)
According to this reference link, the impact energy was in the range of 1.3e24 J to 5.8e25 J. That's ~310 Teratons to ~13.8 Petatons.
The latter seems like a real high end. However, the low end is far more plausible. And using this impact calculator and playing around with the values (using 10,000 metre projectile diameter) does also give yield estimates well beyond just 100 Teratons. I'm getting impactor energy estimates all the way from 300 Teratons to 600 Teratons for carving out a crater 180 to 200 km in diameter.
Proposal:
Per Andytrenom's suggestions:
Tier: At least High 6-B, possibly High 6-A
Attack Potency: At least Large Country level, possibly Multi-Continent level (Recent estimates peg the impact energy at 310 Teratons to 13.8 Petatons of TNT equivalent. Impact event caused rapid acidification of the Earth's oceans and long-lasting global climate changes and ultimately caused a global extinction event which wiped out 75% of all species on Earth)
Speed: At least High Hypersonic to High Hypersonic+ (Impactor would have entered Earth's atmosphere at velocities of potentially tens of kilometres per second)
