Re: [Geology2] What would happen if a small black hole struck the earth

Robert,

You shared:
> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21648-earth-has-little-to-fear-from-a-black-hole-.html

The authors were treating "far field" effects, assuming you are not
standing in the path of the tiny primordial black hole. They do mention
local effects such as cracking rock. If the PBH passed through a person,
the effect would probably not be too dissimilar from the effects of a
small caliber pistol.

They also only considered the average speed of objects in "open orbits,"
which means they would be fast enough to transit the Earth in about a
minute and supersonic in the atmosphere. They did not consider slower
moving cases for which the object might make multiple passes or even
stay within the Earth, in which case it would grow and slow further.
This would lead to the scenario that captures public interest.

Chuck





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