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Old 03-26-2014, 06:18 PM   #19
Drifter
 
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Los Angeles
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

There is this from NASA, linking the Ordovician extinction to, possibly, a GRB.

And here is a link to a NOVA site on what would happen to the ozone. Aside from the stuff already mentioned C-14 is also produced in the upper atmosphere. If the GRB was the result of a pair of neutron stars in a mutual, decaying orbit (apparently thought to be a common cause of GRBs), you'd get high energy particles just after the gamma rays, lasting for weeks. If it was close enough the particles would come right on the heels of the gamma rays.

As Mr Lloyd points out, I think the intention was that Lucifer worlds be killed off relatively quickly - at least that's how I read it too. But as Mr. Thrash points out, that is hard to do without blowing off the atmosphere. So does a pair of neutron stars colliding, within about 3000 light years, do it? A GRB knocks out most of the ozone in the southern hemisphere, resulting in skin cancers and dying plant life over a period of a few weeks. C14 and other radioactive fallout adds to the destruction. Then several weeks later a new rain of high energy particles sleets through the atmosphere, causing more fallout like material.

In anycase if it was going to take weeks, with skin cancers suddenly appearing, crops and life in general dying in the fields, fallout raining down, people would panic on a grand scale. I'm sure people in the outskirts, away from communications, would swarm into the cities looking for food, medicine and protection. People in the cities would hunker down, hoping for the government to come up with something - especially when people figure out going outside is deadly (at least during the day).

Famine, deaths from cancer and, very quickly, things like cholera and associated diseases pile up. Most cities decay into chaos. Military hardened areas, set up to deal with a nuclear attack, would have supplies and shelter to keep some people alive for a while. Like the government leaders of the US, Soviet Union, and most of the other major countries, along with many military bases. Although you'd probably get mutinies pretty quick when the soldiers realize they're going to die while their leaders live, just because of where they stand in the ranks, not for any nationalistic reasons.

Longer term you'd have to have access to foodstuffs. Deep sea animals would survive, so maybe you'd see submarines used for fishing. Somehow. Or the pockets of survivors would raid surrounding ruins for a few months to years for food, then gradually die off. I suspect you'd have survivors for years at coastal military bases, San Diego, New London, or Pearl Harbor. Maybe with a still President Carter at one of them, or Acting-President Cyrus Vance.
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