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Problem Title: Deep Impact

     
  Year: 1999      
  Student Level: Undergraduate      
  Source: MCM      
  Commentary: Yes (1)      
  Student Papers: Yes (5)      
     
  Problem  
 

For some time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been considering the consequences of a large asteroid impact on the earth.

As part of this effort, your team has been asked to consider the effects of such an impact were the asteroid to land in Antarctica. There are concerns that an impact there could have considerably different consequences than one striking elsewhere on the planet.

You are to assume that an asteroid is on the order of 1000 m in diameter, and that it strikes the Antarctic continent directly at the South Pole.

Your team has been asked to provide an assessment of the impact of such an asteroid. In particular, NASA would like an estimate of the amount and location of likely human casualties from this impact, an estimate of the damage done to the food production regions in the oceans of the southern hemisphere, and an estimate of possible coastal flooding caused by large-scale melting of the Antarctic polar ice sheet. 
 
         
  Commentary      
 

Judge's Commentary: The Outstanding Asteroid Impact Papers

Patrick J. Driscoll
Department of Mathematical Sciences
U.S. Military Academy

 
         
  Student Papers      
 

Deep Impact

Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA, USA

 
         
 

Asteroid Impact at the South Pole: A Model-Based Risk Assessment

Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA, USA

 
         
 

Antarctic Asteroid Effects

Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma,WA, USA

 
         
 

Not an Armageddon

University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

     
         
 

The Sky is Falling!

University of Puget Sound, Tacoma,WA, USA