great balls of fire!

United States
May 20, 2007 8:44pm CST
Goodness, gracious, ancient native amercians and the mastadons were killed by great balls of fire. Check out this story. There once rained down across north america great balls of fire that set the contintent's vegetation ablaze and caused mass exctinctions. Another fanciful tale straight from the pages of the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS? No, this story is serious. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2083785,00.html Scientists have actually uncovered pretty convincing indications that a comet hit the earth about 12,900 years ago. It was a catastrophe. The ramifications of this event affect us even to this day. Click the url and read about it. Imagine an event more of a disastor than an all out nuclear war. That's what happens when a comet hits. So, what do think? Are these scientists crazy or brillant? Do you think modern man could survive such a catastrophe?
2 people like this
6 responses
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
21 May 07
Wow - what a great artical! I'll have to re read it & digest the info. As for modern man surviving - well some humans probably would, but it would be a big set back & probably bring the human population under 1 billion - probably to a few million - depending on where it hits.
1 person likes this
• United States
21 May 07
Yes, as more is uncovered about earth's history, an incredible story is unfolding. I agree the human population would certainly probably go under 1 billion, if the comet was not bigger than this last one. If it was bigger, humankind could be a goner.
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
21 May 07
if it were as big as shumaker-levy 5, that for sure! look at the effect it had on JUPITER!!!
1 person likes this
• United States
21 May 07
I remember seeing video of that. I don't remember how they were able to film it, whether it was telescopes on earth or from a space probe, but it was awsome. That comet would have destroyed all higher life forms on earth. Probably some insects and microbes would have survived, but that's about it. Maybe not the insects! I remember at the time there being some comparisions of the damage on jupitar to what comparable damage would have been on earth and there is no way much could have survived here if that comet had hit anywhere on earth. Scary part is, laws of probability are that someday it will happen.
1 person likes this
@EvanHunter (4026)
• United States
26 May 07
My grandfather told me a story of when he was a young boy him his brother and his father were walking down a road at night time. It was an old country road back in the days when you pretty much walked everywhere. I guess as they were walking down this road there was a great ball of fire about 6 feet tall that came from the high ground of the road they were walking on rolled over the road and down into a swampy area. I was always curious on exactly what it might have been that they had seen as they all swore for many years that they werent lying about it. Reading this story reminded me of their tale.
1 person likes this
• United States
26 May 07
Probably a meteor. Small ones that manage to remain intact strike the earth all the time. Sometimes people actually see them come down. They are a blaze of fire. It is a totally believable story. I actually saw one in the day time in the desert out west in the USA while a truck driver. It did not, however, strike the earth. It burned up still quite high up. I was driving and saw a fire ball in the sky. Not particularily large but big enough and bright enough to see in the day light. It only lasted a short time and burned out before hitting the ground, so I assume it was disintergrated.
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
21 May 07
Possible, but, they'll never know for sure unless someone figures out a way to time travel back there. If it were to happen today, we have people over so much of the planet that yes, some would survive. After all, even some of the early humans survived or we wouldn't be here today.
1 person likes this
@Riptide (2758)
• United States
22 May 07
This is very interesting indeed. It makes sense too and I think those scientitsts are brilliant. I don't modern man could survive something like this. Maybe a small population of a few thousand, but I think most life would be wiped out.
1 person likes this
• United States
22 May 07
Imagine this: After the comet hits, in a small cave in a mountainous region of the remote Afgan-Pakistani border a bearded very tall individual peers out after seeing a flash visible even in the dark recesses of his hideout. It is Osama bin Laden and at last he is safe from his American tormentors. Osama is the last man left alive on the planet earth. Has Allah saved him or cursed him? I don't know what made me think of this, but it seemed appropiate.
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
21 May 07
Kinda makes the man made global warming thing look like a walk in the park... I can see where this could happen, and there have already been a couple of other major hits by meteors I think. I don't think the scientists are crazy...I can buy this as a reason for abrupt climate change a lot easier than I can buy the idea that it was caused by global warming...man made or otherwise. I think some people would survive, unless the impact was was so great that the entire world burned...and I do remember a prophecy after a flood that said the next time the world would be destroyed by fire. We are really nothing more than a target sitting in space, so I think this is quite plausible, and possible too.
1 person likes this
• United States
21 May 07
Howdy destiny! Yep, these guys do seem to have their ducks in a row. The stuff about the diamond dust is pretty convincing and hard to argue with. It would be beyond me to argue with them about their interpetation.
1 person likes this
@lisaneuc (56)
• United States
21 May 07
Let's get working on creating a scientific consensus on this topic and a snappy PowerPoint presentation. Comets are real and threaten us all!!!!!! Hee! Hee!
• United States
21 May 07
You make a good point. Comets are real. They do threaten us. We can't do much more about comets than we can global warming. Help...help..., we all are going to die! Wait a minute! We all already knew that. Your response provokes another thought to me. Which, I guess, I almost had anyway. That is, instead of a powerpoint presentation write a WEEKLY WORLD NEWS type article base on real science and submit it for publication. That could be really funny. The question is."Would a publication like the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS actually want creditability?".