Alright I'm doing a report on "Trying To Survive Apocalyptic Disasters." It's a long story about how it came up one day but I made some good suggestions about a number of likely scenarios (I'm a huge fan of the subject), where what you did might give you a chance. Anyways, it's going along nicely but I've run into trouble on my chapter on impacts with large mass space objects, meteors/asteroids etc. My plan on this would be to get to the nearest mountain range, on the opposite side of the nearest ocean or ocean connected body of water, since it will be more than likely an ocean impact. To find a decently sized cave least a few miles long, which entrance(s) are somewhat protected from rising flood waters in direction and elevation. So basically I want some examples of cave systems on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains with a decently high entrance elevation, 2500ft above the sea level or more. Internet search is being difficult on this topic but examples would be nice other than just turning in this part with a search-and-find part of the plan. It's for the southern east coast of the U.S. btw.

are you only trying to cover initial survival or long term as well?

because long term survival for humans after an extinction level asteroid event is very unlikely.

I'm unsure about such specific levels where mass of the impacting object would change to E.L.E. but lets just say you gotta dodge a big wave, reentry debris etc but not the planet burning.

/e initial only, minor impact on this kinda scale not the kinda that have multiple year nuclear winters due to dust clouds covering the planet etc.

This post was edited by imez on Oct 8 2013 12:39am

with advanced warning in that situation you would be better off going inland and north rather than trying to hide in a cave.

not trying to step on your thing but its pretty impractical to stay anywhere near the projected impact site.

are you sure, i entered "cave systems in appalachian mountains" and amongst quite a few other nice references the following came up on page one:

http://www.caves.org/pub/journal/PDF/v71/cave-71-03-180.pdf

seems like that would be a good read for you, especially since it contains some geological information beyond just maps of plenty caves
if that doesn't help you could always try to contact the organisation

also http://www.acave.us/ has plenty contact numbers

since when is it a cave right by the impact, im talking thousands of miles away, more or less its to be able to survive a tidal wave plus reentry debris which will be fall around the globe.



tyvm, and good idea calls are free

This post was edited by imez on Oct 8 2013 01:13am

doesn't really matter
first i didn't want to chime in to the debate about seeking refuge in a cave but let me throw in my penny's worth:

there are scenarios for which cave's provide shelter etc (eg nuclear war)
but in case of an impact involving a large mass space object caves are quite unsuitable
what is the power released by the impact? if really huge the geological structure of mountain ranges would be affected
ie most caves would cave in or at least sustain substantial damage
far safer would be an open plain in a geological stable area far enough from impact and potential secondary impacts from material thrown up
best option would probably be in some sort of flying machine

Other than caves, if you're looking in the Appalachian Mountains there is a good shot that there are abandoned missile silos for sale by the US Government. That might be a path worth spending 5 minutes or so looking into.