When I was watching the news and videos of the meteor/meteorite that struck the city in Russia on Friday, I was reminded of the importance of geographic diversity. Supposedly it was a once in a century strike, but living in the NYC metro area these last few years, I have endured my share of once-in-a-century events that happen every year, and sometimes more than one such event in one year.
With thousands of buildings damaged and more than a thousand people injured (so far) the meteor strike was an absolute disaster. (Although, in a Russian-style lemons-out-of-lemonade scenario, there is talk of squeezing profiting from it by selling any bits of the meteorite that are found and by making the town a tourist attraction.)
I think about what might have happened had the ten-ton meteor broken apart a bit lower in the atmosphere, or if it did not break at all and hit the town full on. The energy from the broken meteor as actually happened was equivalent to 20 to 40 Hiroshima a-bombs. There could have been thousands of deaths and more serious destruction. Had it happened over NYC, we would still be struggling through the consequences of disrupted communications, ruptured skyscrapers, the stock exchanges shut down, banks closed (at least regionally), a total mess. The local event would negatively affect the whole country.
Of all the things to happen--who thinks a meteor will rain down hell? Anyway, geographic diversification is a good idea.
meteors, meteorites, asteroids, and geographic diversification
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