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Kerbin's Crater Age; guesses?


GarrisonChisholm

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Kerbin's large crater (of various names, depending upon where you look) is the predominant feature of its hemisphere.  Yes, it is a ring of pixels in a computer game.  However.  If one were to use *only* our sparse observational data in a realistic "game" sense, how Young could it be?

I know such a crater could not have formed in this 1/10th scale world, but if one is inclined to invest in the "story" of KSP (as so many Mission Reporters are), it happened, and should have an explanation.

Foremost in such an investigation I would think is the fact that the planet has returned to a benevolent climate, as following this event the global climate was assuredly Not benevolent.  For Earth's Chixalub event I have heard estimates of 200,000 years or more to return to full "normal", but I am unsure how that math should be modified for a 1/10th scale world.  Any ideas?

 

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10 hours ago, GarrisonChisholm said:

I know such a crater could not have formed in this 1/10th scale world, but if one is inclined to invest in the "story" of KSP (as so many Mission Reporters are), it happened, and should have an explanation.

Which one? There's the very obvious 'Crater Rim' that lies mostly submerged in the ocean, only touching the continent on one side. But there's also a much older impact 'wound' of bigger diameter that is entirely inland on the continent at the opposite side of the planet.

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I was referring to the prominent ocean-filled crater with the island mid-most.  However, I think this is my favorite answer-

8 hours ago, purpleivan said:

I think it's about 5 1/2 years (well that's what the release notes suggest)... things happen fast on that little world :D

So, I think for the purposes of the tale I am writing, I will just invent a vaguely plausible figure and go with it.  :)

 

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I think it would be geologically "somewhat recent".  Earth's own megacraters blend well enough with the landscape by now that we needed mass spectrometers to make the mental leap from "round landform" to "oh, its a crater".  Maybe 1 million years, tops.

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A rough scale modifier for effects would be 10th as well. So approximately 20,000 years for recovery from the splash that is the crater. Some effects go up as scale goes down, but the amount of material thrown around goes down as well. You'd be looking at some pretty heavy science lifting to get a more precise answer.

I wouldn't go with a vaguely plausible answer. You'll want something that makes sense until they get to the icebox rather than the commercial break.

As for age, assuming no other effects and judging by the greenery on it, I would put it in the few centuries to few millennia range.

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On 12/21/2017 at 5:51 PM, GarrisonChisholm said:

Kerbin's large crater (of various names, depending upon where you look) is the predominant feature of its hemisphere.  Yes, it is a ring of pixels in a computer game.  However.  If one were to use *only* our sparse observational data in a realistic "game" sense, how Young could it be?

Well, "realistic" for the Kerbal universe implies Kerbin and everything in its solar system are made of ultra-dense exotic matter that couldn't exist under the laws of physics in our own universe.  After all, Kerbin's AVERAGE density is greater than that of osmium when measured on an Earthly scale.  So I'm sure that takes care of the issue of Kerbin's size compared to the crater :)

Anyway, I think it's pretty fresh.  It isn't badly eroded.  Also, Kerbals are only just now starting to return to the surface.  There's a ruined mud-brick pyramid complex probably dating from the late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, and then there's KSC and its contemporaries, with nothing in between.  So if we assume the Kerbals retreated back underground when the crater formed, it probably only happened about 5000 years ago or so.

The much bigger, much more eroded crater on the landmass E of KSC, OTOH, is so old that plate tectonics have skewed it out of round.,  So it's probably at least a few hundred million years old, if not more.

There's also a fairly fresh, fairly small (as in only a couple km wide crater just WSW of KSC, on the edge of the plateau.  Again, it's probably only a few thousand years old, perhaps related to the big new crater.

 

 

Edited by Geschosskopf
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Thank you- both guesstimates push it to the region I had considered, early pre-history.  I'm more inclined to call it 15,000 years for my tale's purposes, but I had already imagined their current hobbit-like dwellings (in my mind) as a relic of vertical structures not being "safe" following the global earthquakes that may have sputtered on for decades.  I see the Pyramid as an astronomical/religious structure that arose a few thousand years later on, once civilization had recovered (if you want to build elevated, build for stability).   But, if I go on I will start to spoil bits of my story, currently awaiting a post-holiday resumption.  :)

At least now I can consider my figures to be utterly without validity, though I doubt this passes for peer review.  :P

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I think the gigantic crater is too small and young to have formed the Mun. Whatever caused it must have eliminated almost all life on Kerbin, so it must have hit BEFORE life on Kerbin, or hit DURING life on Kerbin and kerbin just recovered.

I actually think the thing hit during life on Kerbin, and is the only reason why we have such invasive lifeforms like trees, grass, cacti and little green men on Kerbin.

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It's probably just recently, I mean literally. Since for whatever reason, it's year 1, day 1, 00:00:00 whenever kerbin came to existence and it's in a middle of a day on KSC :P

Edited by ARS
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