A warm Earth. An arriving comet.
The core lodges.
The bedrock fractures.
Book interpretation · core depth, size and fractures schematic. Modern bedrock profile is a reference.
Read the book’s bedrock section · D-30 ↗Displacement shown at 20× · section depth exaggerated
Preparing the warm Earth and its response…
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The map is the starting point.
The authentic 1977 World Ocean Floor map supplies the visual reference. Its geographic registration is approximate; numerical heights come from the retained NOAA ETOPO1 (2009) grid, sampled at 0.2°. The globe mesh samples every 0.5°. Modern NOAA ETOPO1 fills the polar gaps in the artwork.
1× preserves the numerical vertical scale. Exaggeration changes the view; depth values remain in metres.
The original map combines measured soundings, interpretation and painted relief. New GMRT profiles let us compare numerical depths and source provenance. Matching the map is a reconstruction constraint, rather than proof of the event’s cause or date. Columbia’s source map ↗
One landmass. New coastlines.
Begin with a continuous Pangea and an intact Antarctic sector. The core impact deforms the shared mesh, then opens seams and separates fragments.
At impact, an oblique close view shows Antarctica’s bedrock bending and its western sector pulls apart, then the camera returns to the global spread. The fine material grid follows that same bending mesh. Vertical motion is exaggerated for visibility; no measured displacement is implied. Read the book’s crustal response ↗
Building the connected crust…
Figure D-11 guides the broad starting outline. Coastline coordinates, curved seams, transient flexure, relief, weak zones and the strain law are authored assumptions. The mesh really changes connectivity, but its motion is prescribed rather than solved by a rock-mechanics model. Ice follows material sectors; the fragments have no modern coastline target. The modern plate map remains a separate reference.
Read the book’s before-and-after diagram · Figure D-11 ↗Change the shares. Inspect the same moment.
The book supplies the sequence and working body. Core share, retention and density contrast remain trial assumptions.
Core-driven response · mass, speed and angle now drive the wave and spin calculations and scale the breakup display. Geography, recoil and the energy-to-motion mapping remain illustrative.
Impact direction & Earth’s starting spin
Trial ready.
A spinning Earth receives the core’s momentum.
The book proposes little/no initial tilt and a final ~23.5°. The gray axis is that comparison, not a fitted calculation.
One reference turn takes eight display seconds. The relative rates use the calculated sidereal day; this preview clock does not advance the impact story. Both textures are modern surface references for orientation. The starting sidereal day is assumed to be 86,164.1 s; the book supplies no precise pre-impact day length.
Direct angular momentum: Lafter = Lbefore + transfer × (r × Mcorev). The calculation keeps Earth’s inertia fixed and includes entry angle and bearing. It does not solve long-term mass redistribution or polar wander. The main impact map is in an Earth-fixed frame.
Book’s starting world & tilt ↗ · NASA modern rotation reference ↗What is calculated, and what is illustrated?
Core and mantle volumes close to the chosen whole-body volume using the trial density contrast. The core’s arrival size follows that volume; its cutaway size is bounded to keep the schematic section readable. Core burial depth and fractures remain illustrative.
Ice fill assumes the book’s Antarctic, Greenland and sea-rise inventory proportions. Connected-crust mode grows ice on schematic Antarctic and Greenland material sectors. Plate-reference mode scales modern ice shapes. Snow-stream visibility is weighted by retained mass, and fill is capped by the listed inventory. The model does not convert nitrogen into water or calculate fragment flight, melting or deposition patterns.
The coherent core now supplies impact energy and momentum: E = ½Mcorev². The normal component E sin²(entry angle), multiplied by the selected wave-coupling fraction, drives the reduced wave response. Direct spin uses core momentum and the chosen transfer fraction. The separate tracked gas inventory still uses whole-body mass; its vent timing can change with the wave.
The breakup display uses the square root of normal energy relative to the 500 km, 20% core, 30 km/s, 23° reference trial. In connected-crust mode this bounded gain drives an authored deformation field and a chosen seam-failure threshold; there is no modern endpoint. The separate plate-reference mode remains capped at its modern comparison endpoint. This is an explicit display response, not a solved fault, plate-force or collision model. Antarctica’s bounded tangential recoil and Greenland’s displaced-ice cue illustrate the angled push. Core burial and ice footprints remain schematic/reference choices.
Spin-axis direction and the separate mass-balance figure axis are different quantities. JPL explains that distinction ↗.
Core & mantle source · Chapter Two ↗Inventory source · Chapter Three ↗
Follow the story from the source.
Six connected scenes from Antarctic Impact, with chapter references and a view for each part of the story.
Michael & Ramon Madden · Vision Edition
The book supplies the narrative. The globe’s reference geometry and numerical experiments are identified separately.
One continuous sequence. The response clock follows the wave and atmosphere; continental travel is illustrative.