why do people believe that the continents were torn asunder?
if the continents were 1 at one point, then that would have left the rest of earth (water/oceans) vulnerable to impact because continents act as a blanket to protect the earth. when the planet formed, what are the chances of it being it being clumped together covering only 1/4 of the earth? seriously whats the probability of something like that happening. some people just seem to accept that theory as truth since most of us are taught at a young age how it came to be. i believe that the continents were never together.

discuss!

eh, basically the crust of the earth wasn't a perfect sphere.. and the pangea was the part that stuck out the furthest.... and over time I guess the centripetal force of the Earth's rotation (and probably other forces too) caused it to level out more. Just kinda guessing on some of this, but it does sound plausible
I don't get why you think the earth is more protected from impact now than it would have been with one huge continent? It's still the same ratio of land/water.

i'm not really implying it is more protected but the continents are spread out making it less vulnerable than to what it would be with just 1 continent.

i actually would like to know what would happen if a meteor struck into the ocean. would it be more devastating? would the water kind of act as a shock absorber/barrier? how about tidal waves? would that wipe out the entire human race? would it be less of a threat to mankind if it struck water or land? which do you think would be more excruciating? is it crucial to advance space civilization/weapons to help protect the earth/humans from extinction? however, i do not particularly agree with space weapons due to the destruction it may bring.

let me know what you think.

This post was edited by Gthumb420 on Feb 26 2009 12:58pm

if something hit the ocean yea a huge wave would come and blah blah .. but if i'd hit the earth, the devastation could be a lot worst, beside that, we would have a mass layer of dust and some other components out in the atmosphere for about 5 years (depending the size of the meteor) ...

thats what i think at least o0

i saw something about this in an england magazine, now i don't remember with one o0 !

This post was edited by croatonn on Feb 26 2009 12:58pm

If a big enough meteor hit (I'd say anything from 2 to 4 miles in radius), we're screwed no matter where it hits... Yes, if it hit the ocean, tidals waves would ravage the entire earth... think about throwing a rock into a pond as hard as you can, now imagine yourself 100 times smaller than that rock and watch the splash. yea. If it hit the earth it could possibly whip up massive amounts of dust to cover the entire skyline for ages. And in both cases, the impact shock would be tremendous...

There is a theory that the earth expands and at one time all the continents was the entire surface of the earth. since its expansion it has split up and gained an ocean. theres a video on youtoube about this ill find it lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kL7qDeI05U
well that links to abunch of other videos as well, i beleive this is possible myself

This post was edited by short_circut on Feb 27 2009 05:51am

Pangea doesn't put the continents at risk for a meteor strike. Picture a game of battle ships, I could put four ships in each corner, or all of them in the middle. My opponent on his first move has the same chance of hitting them no matter what.

/agree
although if the continents where spread out it would just happen to throw the odds out of proportion, its implementing the rule of luck

This post was edited by short_circut on Feb 27 2009 09:24am

Alternately, a devastating meteor strike on land or in water doesn't make a difference. A giant meteor is gonna fuck shit up. Period.

Either you are joking our you have never been properly taught the theory of plate tectonics, or anything science related for that matter. :/

Also, we don't "believe" that the "continents were torn asunder", there is significant evidence that shows when, where, and why rifting and drifting happened/happens. Come up with another theory that explains it all in much better detail than the current one and I will happily change my mind.




And I guess all the material needed to expand earth by 250% magically appeared?

Or is earth inflating like a balloon? lol


This post was edited by Lights_Warrior on Feb 27 2009 04:32pm