Airburst Forensics Overhauls Risk Models

Updated: 2025.09.10 1M ago 2 sources
Researchers propose identifying past 'touchdown airbursts' via geochemical and sediment signatures because these events don’t leave craters. If those markers show frequent airbursts, asteroid‑impact hazard estimates based on crater counts are biased low. — This pushes planetary‑defense policy toward new detection, monitoring, and civil‑defense planning that account for craterless surface‑devastating events.

Sources

Rogue Wave Mystery Solved
Kristen French 2025.09.10 45% relevant
Both articles update extreme‑event risk by identifying non‑obvious signatures that enable better detection/forecasting. Here, rogue waves get a two‑process 'signature' for short‑term forecasts; the airburst piece proposes geochemical/sediment markers for craterless impacts.
The Cosmos Is Trying to Kill Us
Bob Grant 2025.08.21 100% relevant
Kennett’s group’s PLOS One paper and related studies presenting sediment evidence and describing 'touchdown' heat/pressure blasts without craters.
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