Earth Shattering events, come , in my mind, in two categories: Earthbound and Extraterrestrial (NOT ALIENS!) events. I have two in mind, both are absolutely inevitable, it is just a matter of when. One of these “events” we MAY have a chance of stopping, the other, at our current level of science and knowledge, we can do nothing but prepare for, and hope we survive. Both of these particular scenarios, have wildly different survival potential, but both could easily be ELE level events, or just major global catastrophes, and therefore survivable if properly prepared.
So, lets talk about the BIG BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE first. Asteroid impact. It will happen, they are out there, we have already had what Astronomers consider very close passes. 367943-Duende comes to mind, Duende passed 27,700 km (17,200 mi) it was 30 meters in diameter and is estimated at 40,000 metric tons, (I’m not sure about this,) but probably traveling about 20 miles per second. This impact would deliver at the earths surface approximately, 44,562,841,804,800 kilojoules of energy, or for the mathematically challenged (who isn’t) the equivalent of +- 10.65 megatons of TNT. This would/could be an easily survivable event. As asteroids go Duende is not large, all would depend on angle of hit and of course location of hit, dead on in Los Angles and most of the city would just be gone, vaporized, the fireball would take care of more of course. If it hit in the deep ocean the disaster to man would be slightly lessoned, once again depending on where it hit, if it hit 100 miles off the California coast, then the damage/death toll would still be horrendous. So Size Does matter!
But, as a Prepper what can/could “you” do to prepare yourself and your family to survive a Asteroidal “Deep Impact?” First of all, Don’t Be Where It Hits, if you are then prepping will make no difference, as with any of these scenarios distance form the start of the disaster will make a very big difference, in the rate/% of survival. The other Point of impact issue is WHERE of course it hits beside the “missing you” part. There are many places that if turned into vapor would be disastrous, and deadly in the extreme the odds against hitting some of these is just about a bad as the Asteroid hitting in the first place, Sooo odds greatly agains Asteroid hitting an active Nuclear power plant. But that would be VERY bad. But there are other things that could be hit and vaporized that could be nearly as bad, and a large number
The other known, coming disaster, is the Yellow Stone Super Volcano (movie not so Blockbuster). Yellowstone’s Caldera, is approximately 34 by 45 miles (55 by 72 km) in size. In case you do not know what the Caldera of a Volcano is, it is the depression left after the magma and ash etc have erupted and then the ground above collapses/subsides to fill the emptied space. In order to be called a Super Volcano a volcano needs to have ejected a truly massive amount of ash and/or magma. How much do you ask, well “Therefore a super volcano is a volcano that at one point in time erupted more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of deposits” From the USGS (for the Metrically challenged that is 239.913 cubic MILES of material.) The largest percentage (of the mass ejected) in this type of eruption would be in the form of Ash. Welcome natures version of the nuclear winter scenario, minus the massive amounts of Radiation. Depending on the severity of the eruption, the wind direction during and after the event, and just how severe and ejection occurs. Major Ejection and it could be really bad, relatively minor, and it could be only devastating. You get the point.
Now for the fun part, Yellowstone is only one of four or so, if I remember correctly, “Super Volcanoes” on/in this world, and Yellow Stone is not the largest and/or most dangerous of them by far, to the world in general, not necessarily, the US of A, but that (the rest of the world) is not so important to most of you, unless . . . . you care about life in general, and Humanity, to be specific.
I am not overly concerned about this group, I care about all life in general. This world, that we had the Hubris, to name “Earth,” yes at this point in our evolution; no matter your beliefs, in a power beyond ours, were are evolving at this very moment, and are not the only intelligent life on this planet, no not Aliens (again with the ALEINS thing) there will be survivors, even if it is not us. “Life will find a way”, the “Earth” will not end with the end of Homo Sapiens, something/someone, will step up to the plate to take our place and marvel at the massive waste of our civilization. That an Ape could be so smart and yet so completely ignorant of how the world/Universe works may absolutely flabbergast them, but maybe because they found what was left of our constructs they will not make the same mistake, IT IS NOT ALL OURS FOR THE ABUSING. Maybe it IS time for us to go . . . . . . .