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By Marium Mohiuddin
StaffWriter
"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and
then the heavens wi 11 pass away with a loud noise, and
the elements will be dissolved with fire and the earth
and everything that is done on it will be disclosed."
— the Holy Bible, Peter 3:10
efore man, there were the dinosaurs.
I Over 4 million years ago they ruled the
earth. The age of the dinosaurs ended
when an asteroid hit the earth and caused
the climate to change and life as they
knew it to end.
Now 4 million years later man
rules the earth, but will there soon be
the dawn of a new era?
Dr. Ronald Schorn, a professional as
tronomer and a visiting assistant profes
sor of physics, said humans have been on
earth for 4.6 million years and several as
teroids to hit the earth.
"It happened near Flagstaff, Ariz., and it
destroyed everything in sight," he said. "It
happened in Canada as well. In 1909, it hap
pened in Siberia. A comet hit and it caused an ex
plosion that was five to 10 miles high. It destroyed
everything within one-hundred miles.
"The same thing that happened in Siberia
could happen here in College Station,"
Schorn said. "Who is to say that it could not
hit here? There is no special saucer protect
ing us. If that same comet hit here then it
would destroy Houston, Austin and everything
around here."
Schorn said it does not matter if it is a comet or
an asteroid, if it is traveling at the same velocity it will
cause the same damage.
"An asteroid is a rocky body and a comet is
an icy body," he said. "The bigger they are, the
more damage they will cause. If it were to
hit earth, it would not affect the orbit of
the earth but it would destroy all life,
just the impact alone would shake
you like jelly."
Schorn said the meteor that hit
Flagstaff was small in size but
caused a lot of damage. An average
sized asteroid or comet would cause
a lot more damage.
"Nothing would be around," he
said. "There would be a tidal wave a
mile high and the earth's crust would
look like glowing embers. There would be fires in the
forests and vegetation, shock waves in the ocean, no
sunlight, no photosynthesis."
Dr. Andrew Hajash, professor of geology and geo
physics and the assistant department head, said look
ing at past collisions can be an indicator of what
could happen.
"It would create a lot of pressure," he said. "It
would cause rocks to melt, high temperatures and high
pressures. The energy of the impact would be dissi
pated into heat, sound, movement of mountains and
water and giant explosions."
Hajash said the statistics show the
chance of an asteroid hitting is greater in
the water and than on land.
"A meteor
would most likely hit in the ocean because the earth
is made of 70 percent water and 30 percent is earth,"
he said. "If it were to hit the Atlantic Ocean it would
set off large tsunamis. These waves would be so high
that they would cover the Appalachian Mountains."
Dr. David Owens, a marine biologist and a pro
fessor of biology, said the impact would be reduced
if it were an oceanic impact as compared to a terres
trial impact.
"On land it wou Id cause a lot of debris in the air, vol
canic eruptions and there would be a greater degree of
global warming but in the ocean the damage would
not be as severe," he said.
Owens said the disaster would lead the whole eco
logical system to be damaged or destroyed.
"The damage would also depend on the type and
size of the meteor," he said. "There would be several
volcano explosions, so this would lead to gas and ash
in the air from the core of the earth. It would be a tox
ic environment. There would be less oxygen because
there would not be any plants doing photosynthesis.
"Currently endangered species would probably be
come extinct," Owens said. "A lot of species would go
away. Animals like whales, fishes and sea turtles would
die because of the pressure, it would cause their lungs
to collapse. There would be a lot of havoc and would
take months and months to repair any damage."
Owens said many scientists believe an asteroid or
a comet hitting the earth is what led to the extinction
of dinosaurs.
"There was a great loss of plant production," he
said. "Herbivores died because of the loss, and the car
nivores died because there were not many herbivores
left to eat. So it caused a lot of death and it was enough
to do damage. This then allowed mammals to come
and settle in the remaining habitat, and eat the re
maining plants. It allowed them to take over."
Owens said after many years the dust would settle
and slowly things would be healed.
"Everything evolves and new species would come
back," he said. "First the plants would begin to grow
and this would be followed by animals, but this would
take hundreds and thousands of years."
"A lot of people will be in the wrong place at the
wrong time," Owens said. "If you live in Colorado you
might be fine, but off the coast of Texas you will not.
But man is very clever and he will find ways to keep
himself alive. Of course you would not get evolution
immediately but there will be some that will survive,
and in the long run humans will do just fine."
Schorn said the premise of Armageddon is correct.
The threat of this happening is very real and there are
preventative measures that can be taken.
"We certainly can do something about it," he said.
"You can either pray or get off of your knees and do
something. In one of the movies they blow up the
comet. This will cause the same amount of damage
because instead of having one huge comet you will
have several ones. You can build a rocket engine to
move the comet or asteroid off its orbit. This is a very
real solution."
Dinosaurs did not have the intelligence to save the
planet. Fortunately mankind has the capabilities and
the power to reach within itself to find a solution.
"When the heaven is cleft asunder, when the stars
have fallen and scattered, when the seas are burst forth
and when the graves are turned upside down what
will make you know what the day of recompense is;
the day when no person shall have power to do any
thing for another and the
decision that day
will be with God."
pugh-and-tumble oil driller-astronauts Chappie (Will Patton), Stamper (Bruce Willis), Kurleenbear (Michael
■ ncan), Frost (Ben Affleck) and Choi (Owen Wilson) set out on a journey into space to save the world from an aster-
0ld size of Texas.
[Hollywood stars battle falling star in
doomsday showdown Armageddon
Wageddon
•airing Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck
firected by Michael Bay
lated PG-13
laying at Hollywood 16
[ime countdown is over ... the asteroid approach
es Earth ... Armageddon is upon us. In the sec-
l-*" ond-billed blockbuster film dealing with the
Instruction of Earth by a huge asteroid, or global
■ er as the y say in the film, Armageddon cannot help
■ ru corn P are d to Deep Impact.
I 1 he film stars Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler (the daughter
P teven lyler, whose music can be heard creeping
It 1 0 many of the film's more emotional or dangerous
jmon scenes) and Ben Affleck. These three represent
^main people in a cast of name-brand Hollywood
l, rs and actresses, and they stand out because of the
' 6a ^ ons hip they share with one another.
| Willis' character is Harry Stamper, a world-recog-
2e d deep core oil driller and a man who would kill
n yone attempting to get close to or harm his daugh-
er Grace (Tyler).
in k 8 an as ^ er °i c i the size of Texas is discovered to be
leaking its way to Earth, Stamper and his crew of
u ghneck drillers are asked to take a mission into
ace /plant a nuclear weapon inside its core and
’ je Earth from total obliteration. That's the plot;
>ett g t0 ° di ^rent from that of Deep Impact, except
n , er s Pecial effects, many more action sequences
A a f [ as t er -p as ted storyline.
Atfleck portrays A.J. Frost, one of Stamper's rough-
hat ^ W ^° ^ or Grace. Although it is obvious to see
tamper disapproves of Frost (he chases after him
— the Holy Qur'an,
Cleft Asunder 1-4,18-19
on a drill site firing a shotgun), the film takes audi
ences through the evolution of his relationship with
the man who intends to marry his daughter.
Others among the cast of a million stars include
Billy Bob Thornton as NASA Executive Director
Dan Truman and Steve Buscemi as Rock-
hound, another one of Stamper's roughnecks.
Although the film plays out like a two-
minute tango, it spans more than two-and-a-
half hours — when a meteor shower is the
opening scene of the film, it cannot help be a
rollercoaster ride of action and high emotion.
Willis, Tyler and Affleck give memorable
performances; there's just something about
seeing these three actors cry in the film that
makes a moviegoer gush with tears.
The plot, however, suffers from Deep
Impact's earlier release. Overall, Ar
mageddon is worth the price of a matinee
or regular-timed ticket. It provides
laughter, tears, anxiety and a host of oth
er emotions that make the movie-going
experience a real treat.
And although the film showcases the
thought-provoking question of what
would happen if a huge asteroid fell to Earth
(as it did some 65 million years ago with the di
nosaurs), this does not appear to be the message on
most people's minds.
The most asked question about Armageddon seems
to be, "Does Ben Affleck die?" For that answer, fans
will have to watch the film from beginning to end.
(B+)
— James Francis
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