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Earth is facing two major natural threats: one from deep space and one from beneath our feet. In this playlist, we look at NASA’s latest warning about a giant asteroid that may one day cross paths with our planet, and we explore what scientists have uncovered about the next inevitable megaquake. Experts say these dangers are real and knowing what’s coming is our best chance to stay prepared. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00Hundreds of millions of rocks orbit the Sun within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
00:06But only some of them come relatively close to Earth.
00:09NASA classifies asteroids orbiting within 30 million miles of our planet as near-Earth objects.
00:16And inside this group, there are particularly worrisome objects.
00:20Those are so large and orbit so closely to our home planet
00:23that they could turn into a real threat to the world should a direct collision occur.
00:28At the moment, NASA is keeping a close eye on an asteroid named Bennu.
00:33It's a fairly large space object that might smash into our planet in 159 years.
00:40According to the experts, the asteroid, which was first spotted in 1999,
00:45is quite likely to drift into the orbit of our planet.
00:48If it happens, it might collide with Earth by the 24th of September, 2182.
00:54Asteroid Bennu is thought to be taller than the Empire State Building.
00:59If that hits our planet, the collision will release 1,200 megatons of energy.
01:05That's an enormous amount of energy that nothing built on Earth could produce.
01:10Scientists from NASA believe that during the flyby in the 22nd century,
01:14there's a tiny chance that the asteroid will pass through a gravitational keyhole.
01:18That's a region of space that might set the space traveler on a certain path,
01:23which could result in the asteroid crashing into Earth.
01:27Bennu flies by our planet every 6 years.
01:30It has had 3 close encounters with Earth.
01:32In 1999, 2005, and 2011.
01:36These days, scientists estimate the chance of the asteroid hitting our planet by 2182
01:41as 1 in 2,700.
01:45That's more than 5 times a person's chance of being struck by lightning.
01:49But even though Bennu's chance of colliding with Earth are quite low at the moment,
01:54the space rock has still been categorized as a
01:57quote, potentially hazardous asteroid.
02:00All because it might come as close as 4.65 million miles from Earth.
02:05That's the reason why it's also classified as a near-Earth object.
02:09Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid that was formed in the first 10 million years
02:14of the history of the solar system.
02:17That's around 4.5 billion years ago.
02:20No wonder this space body holds precious clues to the origin and development
02:24of the rocky planets of our solar system, which are, as you recall,
02:28Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
02:31Even better, it may contain organic molecules,
02:34similar to those that are crucial for life to evolve.
02:36In 2020, NASA's OSIRIS-REx managed to briefly touch the surface of the asteroid.
02:43It collected some samples and propelled off the space rock afterward.
02:47For NASA, it was the first mission of this kind.
02:51But it won't probably come as a surprise that Bennu isn't the only asteroid we should worry about.
02:57Asteroid 99942, Apophis, is another space body we'd better watch out for.
03:03It's a near-Earth object about 1,100 feet across.
03:08It was discovered in 2004, and at first, it was identified as one of the most dangerous asteroids ever detected.
03:16Apophis gained notoriety very fast.
03:19It was believed to pose a serious threat to Earth.
03:22Experts predicted that it would come uncomfortably close to our planet in 2029.
03:27Luckily, after a more careful examination of Apophis and its orbit,
03:32astronomers concluded that there was no risk of the asteroid colliding with our planet for at least a century.
03:39The risk of an impact in 2029 was ruled out completely,
03:43as well as the potential impact that could be caused by the asteroid's close approach in 2036.
03:49Interestingly, until March 2021, there was a small chance of a collision in 2068.
03:57But then, Apophis made a flyby of Earth,
04:00and astronomers took this chance to use powerful radars to estimate the asteroid's orbit around the Sun more precisely.
04:06This allowed them to rule out any impact risk for at least the next 100 years.
04:11Now, the reason why such discoveries make us so worried is that even a relatively small asteroid the size of a house
04:20can wreak havoc upon colliding with our planet.
04:23And if an asteroid is larger than 0.6 miles across, astronomers call it a planet destroyer.
04:30The impact energy released by such an asteroid after striking Earth could be devastating.
04:36That's why knowing where such asteroids are and in what direction they're moving is crucial.
04:41The problem is that our capability to protect the planet from asteroid impacts is not top-notch yet.
04:48If such a catastrophe was about to occur, we would need some time to prepare,
04:53because an asteroid collision is no joke.
04:56Probably the most well-known asteroid impact site is the Chicxulub crater.
05:01It's the evidence of the terrifying collision that led to the extinction of dinosaurs.
05:06Strangely, this crater isn't very visible.
05:09But some others are.
05:10For example, Behringer Crater in Arizona, which is also called Meteor Crater.
05:15It looks rather blood-chilling when you think about the collision that led to its appearance.
05:21In any case, we now know that space rocks hit not only the Earth, but also the Moon, Mercury, and Mars.
05:29No rocky planet in the solar system is safe from asteroid impacts.
05:32That's why we have an entire scientific enterprise whose goal is to find and catalog the asteroid population of the solar system.
05:41Now, it might sound a bit scary, but there are around 25,000 asteroids larger than 460 feet in diameter near the orbit of our planet.
05:51Such a space rock is large enough to wipe an entire city off the face of the Earth.
05:56So far, less than 50% of such asteroids have been detected and tracked.
06:01There are also an estimated 230,000 objects equal to or larger than 160 feet in size.
06:09Those are capable of destroying a concentrated urban area.
06:13And still, fewer than 8% of those have been detected.
06:17There are also tens of millions of smaller near-Earth objects.
06:21They are larger than 33 feet across and might cause some surface damage.
06:25Less than 1% of such small space bodies have been discovered so far.
06:32Now, the thing is, the inner solar system is extremely challenging for asteroid search.
06:37Each night, there are only two 10-minute windows when astronomers can observe the region.
06:43All because the Sun's glare creates a very bright background glow.
06:47Plus, the atmosphere of our planet also distorts and blurs observations.
06:51Spotting asteroids in such conditions is beyond the capabilities of most telescopes.
06:57A unique instrument is needed to fulfill this task.
07:01And the tool of choice is the Dark Energy Camera at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
07:08This device wasn't designed to hunt asteroids.
07:11Researchers built it to search for another elusive target, dark energy.
07:15The mysterious force driving the expansion of the universe.
07:18The DEC is supposed to observe hundreds of millions of galaxies.
07:23That's why it's both wide and deep.
07:25This way, it can both peer deep into the universe and capture a wide field of view,
07:31which helps it record the motions of galaxies and the conditions in the early age of the universe.
07:37But it also means that the DEC is perfectly suited to spotting asteroids near the Sun.
07:44Inner asteroids are rare, and deep images are necessary
07:47because such asteroids are faint.
07:49Scientists need to be able to fight both the bright twilight sky near our star
07:54and the distorting effect of Earth's atmosphere.
07:57And the DEC can help them achieve their goal.
08:00The Dark Energy Camera was built to carry out the Dark Energy Survey,
08:04which finished in 2019.
08:06Now astronomers can direct the power of the camera towards other tasks.
08:10They claim that the DEC's survey is one of the most sensitive searches ever performed
08:16for objects near Venus's orbit and within the orbit of our planet.
08:20It provides us a great chance to find out what kinds of objects are lurking in the inner solar system.
08:26On January 26, 1700, one of the biggest earthquakes in history hit off the coast of the United States.
08:41It had a magnitude of 9, which puts it in the top 10 most powerful earthquakes ever recorded.
08:47This earthquake triggered a huge tsunami and changed the coastline all the way from southern British Columbia
08:55down to northern California forever.
08:58Back then, the area wasn't very popular, but thanks to some clever research,
09:03scientists figured out exactly what happened that day
09:06by looking at old geological records, tree rings, and even some history from Japan.
09:12On the same day as the earthquake, a massive tsunami also hit Japan's eastern coast.
09:19For a long time, no one connected the two.
09:22But in the 1980s and 90s, researchers realized the tsunami in Japan
09:27had been caused by the earthquake in the Pacific Northwest.
09:31They were also able to pinpoint the exact day.
09:34January 26, 1700
09:37They even found old trees in coastal Washington
09:40that had all perished around the winter of 1700,
09:44which matched up perfectly with the timing of the earthquake.
09:49The earthquake came from the Cascadia subduction zone,
09:53a fault where the Juan de Fuca plate slides under the North American plate.
09:57This fault stretches about 700 miles,
10:00from northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia
10:03to Cape Mendocino in California.
10:06The pressure from the moving plates builds up over time,
10:09and eventually, another big, devastating earthquake will hit the same region.
10:13It's just a matter of time.
10:15By looking at the geological records, past tsunami deposits and signs of land-level changes,
10:23scientists can figure out how often these huge earthquakes happen.
10:28Emergency planners have been preparing for the next big quake,
10:31often calling it the big one.
10:34Scientists believe earthquakes in the Cascadia subduction zone
10:37happen every 200 to 1,000 years.
10:40And since the last major one was over 300 years ago,
10:44the Pacific Northwest is definitely due for another.
10:49When it happens, the earthquake is expected to be as big as the one from 1700.
10:54But this time, it'll affect around 15 million people.
10:58The devastation will be severe.
11:00Buildings will collapse, roads and runways will crack, and bridges will fall.
11:05Communication in and out of the area will be cut off.
11:09But the worst part?
11:11The earthquake will trigger a massive tsunami
11:13that might hit parts of the Washington coast in as little as 10 minutes.
11:19It's not a matter of if, but when the Cascadia subduction zone will break.
11:23When it happens, it will be the worst disaster the U.S. has ever faced,
11:28worse than the Hurricane Katrina or Superstorm Sandy.
11:31It'll impact an enormous area stretching from southern British Columbia
11:36all the way down through Oregon to northern California.
11:40That means millions and millions of people will be affected.
11:45Fairchild is considered a backup staging area
11:48for handling the aftermath of the earthquake,
11:50with Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake being the main one.
11:55For those who will survive the initial quake and tsunami,
11:58the aftermath could be just as disastrous.
12:02Aftershocks will follow and transportation will be a mess.
12:06Roads will be damaged or completely blocked,
12:08airports will shut down,
12:10and most of the main routes, like Interstate 5,
12:13will have bridges destroyed.
12:15This means food and water supplies will be cut off,
12:18and it will be incredibly difficult for help to get in or for people to escape.
12:22Gas pipelines will most likely be damaged too,
12:27and restoring them could take anywhere from a few days inland
12:30to weeks or even months along the coast.
12:33Power outages will be widespread within 100 miles of the coast
12:37throughout the entire Pacific Northwest,
12:39and water could be out for three to seven months.
12:43Even telecommunications will be down for two to three months
12:46across the Pacific Northwest,
12:48Alaska,
12:49and even parts of East Asia.
12:52The good news for eastern Washington
12:54is that it will mostly avoid the worst of it,
12:57thanks to natural barriers between the west and east sides of the state.
13:01The tsunami may hit the Columbia River Gorge,
13:04but it will lose energy quickly because of a sandbar under the river.
13:07The Cascade Mountains will absorb much of the earthquake's impact,
13:12so the east side won't feel it as strongly.
13:15And since eastern Washington won't get hit as hard,
13:18it'll be up to them to handle the aftermath of the quake.
13:21That means helping western Washington,
13:23taking in refugees from the areas that got destroyed,
13:26and delivering supplies to where they're needed.
13:30Scientists have looked at other major 8.0 to 9.0 magnitude earthquakes,
13:35like the ones in Chile in 1960,
13:38Alaska in 1964,
13:40and Sumatra in 2004,
13:43and Japan in 2011.
13:46These kinds of quakes can shake the ground
13:48for anywhere between 6 to 10 minutes,
13:50and that's a long time for the ground to be shaking.
13:54Such quakes are super intense
13:56because they happen close to Earth's surface,
13:58so it's not just a quick shake.
14:00It's a long, strong one that can cause a lot of damage.
14:03If the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami were to hit tomorrow,
14:08over 13,800 people could lose their lives,
14:12and about 107,000 people could be injured.
14:16The economic toll in Washington, Oregon, and California
14:19could top 70 billion.
14:22To put that into perspective,
14:23we can compare these numbers with some other major earthquakes.
14:26In Chile's 1960 earthquake,
14:29about 1,650 people lost their lives.
14:33The 1964 Alaska quake resulted in around 140 lives lost.
14:39The 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami
14:41took the lives of an estimated 280,000 people.
14:47And the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami
14:50caused over 20,000 casualties.
14:53Authorities know about the dangers of the Cascadia Fault,
14:58but even with all the planning,
15:00no one can say for sure what will be needed
15:02when the big quake hits.
15:04Right after the earthquake and tsunami,
15:07the areas outside the immediate disaster zone
15:09won't be able to help much
15:11because roads and airports will be destroyed,
15:14and resources will be limited.
15:16How can we deal with this kind of disaster and its effects?
15:21We don't have all the answers yet.
15:24Right now, let's focus on the Cascadia subduction zone.
15:28It's a huge fault line that stretches
15:29about 620 miles from Vancouver Island
15:32to Cape Mendocino in California,
15:35sitting about 93 miles off the coast.
15:38It's like one tectonic plate
15:40is slowly sliding under another.
15:42When the plates are close to the surface,
15:45about 18 miles deep or less,
15:47they get stuck because of friction,
15:49kind of like pushing two rocks together.
15:52Over time, this creates a lot of pressure.
15:55When the pressure finally becomes too much,
15:58the plates slip, causing a massive earthquake.
16:01This is called a megathrust earthquake,
16:03and it can be huge.
16:06Below the area where the plates are stuck,
16:08there's a zone where the plates move really slowly.
16:11We're talking about just a few inches every few months.
16:16This slow movement helps to release some of the pressure,
16:19but it also builds up more pressure
16:20on the parts of the fault that are still stuck.
16:24This means that over time,
16:25it increases the chances of a huge earthquake happening.
16:29These massive quakes,
16:30called great subduction zone earthquakes,
16:32can be stronger than magnitude 8.5.
16:37Megathrust earthquakes are the biggest earthquakes that happen.
16:40They can go over a magnitude of 9.0,
16:42which is insanely powerful.
16:45Just to put it in perspective,
16:46a magnitude 9.0 earthquake releases
16:491,000 times more energy than a 7.0
16:52and a million times more energy than a 5.0.
16:56These earthquakes happen when a lot of pressure builds up
16:59in a part of the fault that's locked,
17:02which means the plate can't move past each other.
17:04When that pressure gets too high,
17:07the fault finally ruptures,
17:09releasing all that built-up energy in one massive shake.
17:14The Cascadia subduction zone is super long.
17:17That's why if it were to rupture all at once,
17:20it could produce a large earthquake.
17:22Scientists have studied this region
17:24and found that about 18 miles below the surface,
17:27the fault is completely locked.
17:29The plates there aren't sliding past each other,
17:32but deeper down,
17:34the plates start to slide more smoothly,
17:36causing less friction.
17:38This is important because it tells us
17:40how much stress is building up in that locked zone
17:43and how it could eventually lead to a major earthquake.
17:46That's it for today.
17:49So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
17:52then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
17:54Or if you want more,
17:56just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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