Hypothetical disaster
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A hypothetical disaster is any sort of major world disaster, human-wrought or natural, for which there is no known historical or geological evidence but scientists have speculated to be possible.
[edit] List of Hypothetical Disasters
[edit] Mega Earthquake
A Mega Earthquake is an earthquake exceeding magnitude 9 on the richter scale. Earthquakes of up to magnitude 9.5 (for example the Great Chilean Earthquake) have been recorded.
[edit] Megatsunami
Very large tsunamis can be triggered by meteorite impacts or landslides into a sea. Geological evidence shows megatsunamis have happened in the past. One candidate landslide site is in the Canary Islands, with potential to send a catastrophic tsunami to the East Coast of the USA.
[edit] Large meteorite impacts
The effects of large meteorite impacts can have global effects — tsunamis, fires, and nuclear winter. Meteorites are believed to have killed significant numbers of species in the past, famously the mass extinction of dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.
[edit] Super Hurricane
A Super Hurricane (or Typhoon or Cyclone) is a very powerful tropical cyclone with winds that can be at or over 200 mph and sometimes can be over 1,000 miles wide in diameter. Such storms have been theorized since the 1800s, but have never been observed. Since the 1960s numerous storms in the Pacific were said to have winds above 200 mph but they are difficult to verify due to the technology at the time.
[edit] Extreme Firestorm
Extreme Firestorms are disasters in which the fire consumes a very large area. Hypothetically many movies and novels described the world being consumed by a huge firestorm. In modern terms, an extreme firestorm is a fire destroying an entire city, state or country.
[edit] Massive Pandemic
A massive Pandemic is a serious outbreak of a potentially fatal disease. Pandemics have occurred in the past; e.g. Black Death in the 1400s and the Spanish Flu of 1918. Many scientists believe that there will be another great Pandemic or Epidemic in the near future, quite possibly an outbreak of avian influenza.
[edit] Supervolcano
A very large volcanic eruption can cause a nuclear winter effect on a global scale. The Yellowstone Caldera is a famous repeating supervolcano.
[edit] Astrophysical events
It has been theorized that at least in one occasion mass extinctions, the Ordovician-Silurian extinction events, were caused by a hypernova. The explosion of a nearby hypergiant star (100-200 times bigger than our own Sun) can generate a gamma-ray burst with potential to destroy the majority of life on Earth.
Another apocalyptic event would be a black hole entering the solar system, though the chances are remote. The gravitical changes it would cause would be utterly disastrous for the Earth's climate.
Other cataclysmic stellar events may have similar effects, such as the merger of two neutron stars. The processes that produce high energy gamma-ray bursts are unknown.
[edit] Mega Heatwave or Greenhouse Effect
A Mega Heatwave is an extreme kind of heatwave that affects a large area. This disaster can last for months or years compared to normal heatwave and can happen in a sudden or steady rate (The Greenhouse Effect for example). The effect of a mega heatwave is severe drought, famine, melting of the polar ice caps and loss of plant and animal life.
Global warming is believed to be slowly melting the polar ice caps. Sea levels around the world would rise by several meters, permanently flooding large areas of land. Global warming can also affect ecosystems, killing species and causing drought and famine. This disaster is not likely to occur suddenly, but over decades or centuries.
[edit] Third and Fourth World Wars
World Wars III and IV are hypothetical wars to follow World War II. The numbering of the next World War is, however, disputed because some people believe that the Cold War was World War III and the War on Terrorism is World War IV.
[edit] Widespread Economic Collapse
An Economic Collapse is a sudden and simultaneous downfall of an economy worldwide. Economic collapses has happened in the past (e.g. Wall Street Crash of 1929) but not on a global scale. It can have widespread results like the Great Depression of the 1930s. A possible scenario is that one country experiences an economic crisis which causes a chain reaction until the whole world experiences the direct and after effect. This can happen in days, weeks or months.
[edit] Terrorism
Terrorism has long plagued humankind on a local scale. With the possibility of weapons of mass destruction falling into terrorists' hands terrorism has the potential to affect ever larger populations.
[edit] Sudden mass migration
As an effect of another disaster, large numbers of people from one country can flee to neighbouring countries. This sudden migration can cause a widespread humanitarian problems, or trigger civil unrest. One disaster can thus trigger an even more serious one.
[edit] Fate of the Sun
The Sun does not have enough mass to explode as a supernova. Instead, in 4-5 billion years, it will enter a red giant phase, its outer layers expanding as the hydrogen fuel in the core is consumed and the core contracts and heats up. Helium fusion will begin when the core temperature reaches up to 100 MK, and will produce carbon and oxygen. While it is likely that the expansion of the outer layers of the Sun will reach the current position of Earth's orbit, recent research suggests that mass lost from the Sun earlier in its red giant phase will cause the Earth's orbit to move further out, preventing it from being engulfed. However, Earth's water and most of the atmosphere will be boiled away.
Following the red giant phase, intense thermal pulsations will cause the Sun to throw off its outer layers, forming a planetary nebula. The only object that remains after the outer layers are ejected is the extremely hot stellar core, which will slowly cool and fade as a white dwarf over many billions of years. This stellar evolution scenario is typical of low- to medium-mass stars.[1][2]
