Are any human weapons as destructive as a major asteroid impact?

Micro-plastics will kill the oceans for centuries; While an asteroid impact would be over after a few years of nuclear winter.

Here’s my guess:

Enough bombs at once would cause serious disruption to the earth. First, everything nearby dies right away. Then, the smoke and particles will block the sun for days and weeks causing death of both flora and fauna. It will also disrupt the climate. The question in my mind regarding climate is will there be a cascading effect that it sets in motion climate changes for years. Like a tipping point.

I don’t know how many bombs you need to drop to exterminate entire species around the planet. My guess is there are enough bombs in the world to do it.

Some of our more scientific jellies will know better than me.

The Chicxulub impact event was a 100 million megaton blast which is the equivalent of two million nuclear bombs. As there are only 13,000 nuclear warheads in the world today their combined explosive power is several orders of magnitude less. We will never match the explosive power of the asteroid event but we don’t have to as nuclear weapons can be targeted on where they will do the most damage and unlike an asteroid leave a legacy of radioactive fallout that can persist for centuries.

The asteroid which killed the dinosaurs and the majority of the species when it struck was approximately 6 miles wide. The fact that it struck did not immediately kill everything immediately.

The asteroid threw up millions of tons of earth, water and other debris which eventually covered the Earth and cause a nuclear type winter of disaster which blocked the sun and was mainly responsible for destroying the plant-life which fed the animals who eventually died of starvation.

There are 1000s of missiles held in several countries and if all were fired at the same time it would be ample to cause a nuclear winter and radiation poisoning to destroy to world and the vast majority of all lie on the earth including human life..

In fact it would probably take less than 100 missiles to cause a nuclear winter.

The human brain has the potential to do far more damage than any asteroid.

Yes.

The planet that crashed into Earth to eventually create the moon, was propelled in that direction by a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to its equator! ;-o

OK silliness aside, the answer is an emphatic “no”. The combination of asteroid speed and asteroid mass (both matter!) are far greater than any human invention.

In addition to thoise two factors above, consider two others:
– the heat created when the asteroid hits earth atmosphere (pretty damned hot)
– the movement of air when the mass of the asteroid and heat pushes air out of the way

read this about a 1908 asteroid blast.

Asteroids come in a range of sizes from “burns up in the atmosphere” to “mot much life left, but you have a new moon”.

There are also different types of destruction involved. Asteroids have different types of effects from hundreds of thermonuclear warheads placed strategically over cities, for example.

Measures of destruction are also subjective. I’m starting to feel like the selecting wiping out of industrial humans would be a positive boon. I’d rather lose the fossil fuels industry, industrial agriculture, and most of the current human population, than continue to lose ever more non-human species and habitats.

No. One major asteroid impact could devastate the earth and kill every living organism.

No. In 2017 a large asteroid that came through our solar system, came in at 98,000 mph (27.22 mps), left at 196,000mph (54.44 mps). It was 1300 feet long, 130 feet wide and was rectangular.

I believe if an asteroid was large enough it could blow the Earth into trillions pieces. There would be nothing left :(

In theory, the design and materials to create a single thermonuclear bomb with enough power to exceed even the Chicxulub asteroid already exists. The concept was acutually tested by the Soviet Union in 1961, with a fission/fusion/fission layered bomb deliberately scaled down to avoid a catastrophic uncontrollable detonation.

It was classified as type RDS-220/AN602 – the Tzar Bomba :
https://www.rferl.org/a/tsar-bomba/31530341.html

Scaling up this weapon is limited only by the payload capacity of the delivery vehicle selected – aircraft or rocket.

Think happy thoughts.