1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,680
Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:08,119
Speaker 2: George Nori with you, Michael Rampino with us. Michael, what

3
00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:10,760
Speaker 2: got you involved in all of this? This is great work.

4
00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:15,360
Speaker 3: Well, what got me involved in the geology and the

5
00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:18,360
Speaker 3: study of the Earth in general was when I was

6
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:21,320
Speaker 3: seven years old. They reached to the Museum in National

7
00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:25,680
Speaker 3: History in Manhattan and I saw, you know, the dinosaurs,

8
00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:28,960
Speaker 3: and I saw the meteorites, and I saw the jans

9
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:30,960
Speaker 3: and minerals, and I said, hey, this is for me,

10
00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:33,680
Speaker 3: you know, I want to know more about this stuff.

11
00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:38,080
Speaker 3: And I stuck with it over the years, and it's

12
00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:40,120
Speaker 3: wiped out pretty well.

13
00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:43,080
Speaker 2: Did the asteroid that hit the Earth sixty some million

14
00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:46,440
Speaker 2: years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs allow us as

15
00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:48,280
Speaker 2: human beings to evolve?

16
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:54,440
Speaker 3: Yes, well, it was important because the dinosaurs were dominant

17
00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:58,080
Speaker 3: on the Earth sixty six million years ago, and the mammals,

18
00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,280
Speaker 3: the small mammals that were our our ancestors, were living

19
00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:06,440
Speaker 3: along with the dinosaurs. But they were just small, tiny,

20
00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:10,520
Speaker 3: rat like, mouse like animals. And it wasn't until the

21
00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:14,360
Speaker 3: dinosaurs were taken out of the picture that those little

22
00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:18,000
Speaker 3: mammals got a chance to evolve into all the present

23
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,200
Speaker 3: day mammals we have today in the world, including primates,

24
00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:27,440
Speaker 3: including us. So we've can thank that that asteroid sixty

25
00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:32,160
Speaker 3: six million years ago for the you know, for humanity.

26
00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:36,680
Speaker 3: We wouldn't be here today that asteroid had missed the Earth.

27
00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,800
Speaker 2: Roughly how many asteroids are considered near missus that buzzed

28
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:41,679
Speaker 2: by us every year?

29
00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:48,559
Speaker 3: Well, I think every year there's around fifty Wow.

30
00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, that are close enough to hit us if something

31
00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:54,480
Speaker 2: goes awry, it could be.

32
00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:58,520
Speaker 3: Yes, some of them are. Most of them are passed

33
00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,160
Speaker 3: by closer than the Moon, right, so they're pretty close

34
00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,520
Speaker 3: to the Earth. But there's still a rather wide range there.

35
00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:11,880
Speaker 3: So so nothing that we know of now that we've

36
00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:15,200
Speaker 3: predicted the orbits for is on a collision course with

37
00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:18,280
Speaker 3: the Earth. But you know, sometimes things pop out of

38
00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:22,720
Speaker 3: nowhere and and on strange orbits, and and you never

39
00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:24,919
Speaker 3: know when an impact might take place.

40
00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:28,960
Speaker 2: Michael, what about volcanoes? How dangerous are they do us?

41
00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:33,400
Speaker 3: Well, the the you know volcanoes are most of them

42
00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:39,200
Speaker 3: are dangerous for local and regional areas. Right, if you're

43
00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:43,079
Speaker 3: near the volcano and it's explosive volcano that erupts, there's

44
00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,560
Speaker 3: gonna be damage, and there's gonna be a loss of

45
00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:50,880
Speaker 3: life in the area of the volcano. But if the

46
00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:55,880
Speaker 3: volcano is big enough explosive volcano is large enough, what

47
00:02:55,919 --> 00:03:00,720
Speaker 3: we call super volcanoes, uh, then it could put so

48
00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:06,240
Speaker 3: much a material up into the atmosphere. That's the problem.

49
00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:11,320
Speaker 3: When they explode, a lot of fine dust and drop

50
00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:14,880
Speaker 3: its of sulphuric acid go up into the upper atmosphere

51
00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:18,000
Speaker 3: and they cut out some of the sunlight that will

52
00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,880
Speaker 3: be coming and warming the planet. And so we after

53
00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:26,400
Speaker 3: historical eruptions, you know, we've seen coolings lasting for a

54
00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:30,520
Speaker 3: couple two or three years after those eruptions. And when

55
00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,120
Speaker 3: we do the calculations of what the cooling would be

56
00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:39,640
Speaker 3: after a supereruption, which might last for several years, it

57
00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,800
Speaker 3: would be enough to cause what we call a volcanic winter.

58
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,280
Speaker 3: And what that means is that that Earth would become

59
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:49,720
Speaker 3: so cool, so cold that you probably lose a couple

60
00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:54,920
Speaker 3: of growing seasons. And if that happened, there'd be mass starvation.

61
00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:58,840
Speaker 3: And so that's that kind of civilization. It's not a

62
00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:03,400
Speaker 3: mass extinction volcanic eruption, but it would certainly threaten civilization.

63
00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:06,880
Speaker 3: If you're going to lose a couple of growing seasons.

64
00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:10,280
Speaker 3: We don't have a backup of enough grain to get

65
00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,360
Speaker 3: us through that kind of situation on a global basis,

66
00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:16,920
Speaker 3: and so there would be a lot of trouble for

67
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:18,680
Speaker 3: the civilized world to get through that.

68
00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:23,600
Speaker 2: In Italy and October seventy nine AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted,

69
00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,040
Speaker 2: killing up to thirty five hundred people. They say maybe

70
00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,200
Speaker 2: up to sixteen thousand. They're not sure. Did those poor

71
00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,000
Speaker 2: people have any notice at all?

72
00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:40,599
Speaker 3: Michael, No, that eruption, There were really no precursors that

73
00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,680
Speaker 3: suggested that there was going to be an eruption, and

74
00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:48,640
Speaker 3: so the eruption started in the morning and it just

75
00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:52,559
Speaker 3: went from there. And so there was really no real

76
00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:58,080
Speaker 3: warning for the people in that area to try to

77
00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:02,400
Speaker 3: get away. They were trying to get away during the eruption.

78
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,760
Speaker 3: But then, as you said, there was a lot of

79
00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:10,360
Speaker 3: loss of life, and those cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum

80
00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:15,400
Speaker 3: were destroyed by the pyroclastic flows from men that big eruption.

81
00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:18,880
Speaker 2: What causes a volcano to erupt, what builds.

82
00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:25,000
Speaker 3: Up, Well, there's you know, these these magbists that are

83
00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:29,600
Speaker 3: inside the earth are charged with with gas. There's a

84
00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:33,320
Speaker 3: lot of gas CO two and water vapor dissolved in

85
00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:37,240
Speaker 3: in these magbusts, and as they come to the surface,

86
00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:42,800
Speaker 3: that gas can be released, and it can be released

87
00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:48,080
Speaker 3: explosively if the magni comes to the surface fast enough

88
00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:53,200
Speaker 3: and so that will will cause an explosion and the

89
00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:55,280
Speaker 3: so the so the magwa doesn't come out as a

90
00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:59,640
Speaker 3: lava flow, it comes out as as particles, as pieces

91
00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,880
Speaker 3: of and and fine ash and stuff. That's that's what's

92
00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:08,320
Speaker 3: produced by explosive volcanic eruption. And as I said, they're

93
00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:14,320
Speaker 3: very hard to predict. And sometimes there's some precursory activity

94
00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:17,440
Speaker 3: that allows you to say, well, there might be a

95
00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:20,040
Speaker 3: big eruption coming, so maybe we better get people out

96
00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:24,000
Speaker 3: of there. But very often there's not much precursory activity

97
00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:27,080
Speaker 3: that tells you very much until the actual eruption.

98
00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:30,520
Speaker 2: What would you say, Michael, might be the biggest dangers

99
00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:32,640
Speaker 2: to us on this planet?

100
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:32,920
Speaker 1: Now?

101
00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:37,719
Speaker 3: The biggest dangers Well, I mean, of course an asteroid

102
00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:41,400
Speaker 3: impact would be the ultimate danger, but they don't happen

103
00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,919
Speaker 3: that often. In the last really big one, it was

104
00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:48,240
Speaker 3: sixty six million years ago that was the one that

105
00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,240
Speaker 3: wiped out the dinosaurs. They've been some smaller ones since then,

106
00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:55,359
Speaker 3: but so it's it's a it's not a it's a

107
00:06:55,480 --> 00:07:00,960
Speaker 3: rare event which has a very big effect. And the

108
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,440
Speaker 3: same thing is true with super volcanoes. They don't happen.

109
00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:07,279
Speaker 3: They happen maybe once in every fifty thousand years, So

110
00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,480
Speaker 3: the relatively rare events. I say, one of the big

111
00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:13,360
Speaker 3: biggest problems we have today in terms of sort of

112
00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:18,440
Speaker 3: an existential problem for us is climate change. You know,

113
00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:21,120
Speaker 3: people who have kind of ignored it or tried to

114
00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:24,040
Speaker 3: ignore it for a number of years, but just look

115
00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,680
Speaker 3: at what's happening this year. You can't ignore it anymore.

116
00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:30,440
Speaker 3: You can't ignore the fires, you can't ignore the droughts,

117
00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:34,440
Speaker 3: you can't ignore the super high temperatures. You can't ignore

118
00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:38,000
Speaker 3: the very warm ocean temperatures that are gonna wipe out

119
00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:41,520
Speaker 3: the coil reaes. I mean, as you said earlier, it's happened.

120
00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:43,960
Speaker 3: It seems to be happening so fast, and I think

121
00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:47,320
Speaker 3: it's because we hit a tipping point. Things were changing slowly,

122
00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:51,000
Speaker 3: and then we hit a point where things started to

123
00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:52,400
Speaker 3: change really fast.

124
00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,480
Speaker 2: In theory, if it's man caused, it should get worse

125
00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:58,680
Speaker 2: and worse and worse from here on in.

126
00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:02,920
Speaker 3: Right, Well, as long as we're continuing to.

127
00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:04,960
Speaker 2: Put if we keep doing what we're.

128
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:08,240
Speaker 3: Doing, Yes, if we stop, you know, if we stop

129
00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:13,720
Speaker 3: tomorrow burning fossil fuels, eventually it would start to get cooler.

130
00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:17,840
Speaker 3: It wouldn't happen right away. But as long as we

131
00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:20,760
Speaker 3: continue to put greenhouse gases, and I can't see us

132
00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:25,600
Speaker 3: really coming that down on a short term basis, it's

133
00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:26,520
Speaker 3: just going to get warmer.

134
00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:30,520
Speaker 2: Now, what's your definition of a greenhouse gas.

135
00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:35,200
Speaker 3: Well, it's a gas. There are a few gases which

136
00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:39,640
Speaker 3: are greenhouse gases. CO two, for example, carbon dioxide methane

137
00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:42,439
Speaker 3: is a greenhouse gas. And what they do is they

138
00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:46,679
Speaker 3: allow sunlight to come through the atmosphere and warm up

139
00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:50,280
Speaker 3: the ground, and then the ground warms up and then

140
00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:54,160
Speaker 3: warms up the atmosphere, and the heat that's coming out

141
00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:58,440
Speaker 3: to warm up the atmosphere is trapped by the greenhouse gases.

142
00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:03,160
Speaker 2: I had heard that we had high carbon dioxide levels

143
00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:06,120
Speaker 2: lots of years ago, many years ago. Is that true?

144
00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:09,679
Speaker 3: Yeah? Sure, one hundred million years ago. CO two is

145
00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:13,000
Speaker 3: very very high, and the planet was warm. But those

146
00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:19,120
Speaker 3: those changes took place over millions of years, slowly gradually.

147
00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,280
Speaker 3: The problem with what's happening now is it's happening you know,

148
00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:30,480
Speaker 3: over decades and ecosystems, you know, life on Earth can

149
00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,559
Speaker 3: adapt to changes that are happening. That's sass.

150
00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:37,000
Speaker 2: What's happening with the what's happening with the sea life

151
00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:41,360
Speaker 2: right now? I'm sorry sea life fish?

152
00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:46,760
Speaker 3: Well, if you have the temperatures in the ocean off

153
00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:52,360
Speaker 3: of Florida are a hundred degrees uh, that's reaching the

154
00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,560
Speaker 3: limit of where lots of sea life can survive.

155
00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,160
Speaker 2: That's like cooking. The fish in the ocean.

156
00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,640
Speaker 3: Are just are just are dying and and and once

157
00:10:02,679 --> 00:10:05,280
Speaker 3: they die and the temperatures remain one hundred degrees in

158
00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:08,400
Speaker 3: the water, they're not they're not going to dat And

159
00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:11,840
Speaker 3: so that's that's a big, you know, potential, very very

160
00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:12,679
Speaker 3: major problem.

161
00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:14,600
Speaker 2: What's a normal temperature for the.

162
00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:19,800
Speaker 3: Ocean in the in the summer, Yeah, maybe eighty degrees

163
00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:20,600
Speaker 3: something like that.

164
00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:23,160
Speaker 2: So it's twenty degrees hotter right now. That's amazing.

165
00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:27,640
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, Now maybe in a few years it'll be

166
00:10:27,679 --> 00:10:28,800
Speaker 3: even more hotter than that.

167
00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:34,480
Speaker 2: If we have cycles of winters, we could have a

168
00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:39,199
Speaker 2: bad winter though, right like you said, yeah, there's.

169
00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:41,160
Speaker 3: No guarantee that the winter is going to be any

170
00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:45,640
Speaker 3: any any milder. Uh, it's the summer season, that's that's

171
00:10:45,679 --> 00:10:46,959
Speaker 3: that's the critical one.

172
00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,080
Speaker 2: And we've got another month of that at least, don't we.

173
00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,679
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, we have at least another month of that.

174
00:10:56,040 --> 00:11:00,960
Speaker 3: Of yes, I I July was the hotest July on record,

175
00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:05,120
Speaker 3: and I don't see why August wouldn't end up being

176
00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:08,040
Speaker 3: the hottest August on record as well. You know, I

177
00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:10,640
Speaker 3: can make that prediction, I think pretty safety.

178
00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,800
Speaker 2: Well, if this is caused by mankind, we're not going

179
00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:18,360
Speaker 2: to change what we do any day quicker.

180
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:25,040
Speaker 3: So what happened, what happens? Yeah, Well, you know, it

181
00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:27,720
Speaker 3: will just continue to get warmer. The more the more

182
00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:31,320
Speaker 3: these the gases we put into the atmosphere, the warmer

183
00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:35,400
Speaker 3: it'll get. So so you know, in San Antonio it's

184
00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:38,400
Speaker 3: one hundred ted degrees, and you know, years may need

185
00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:41,040
Speaker 3: to be one hundred and twenty degrees one hundred and thirty.

186
00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:44,959
Speaker 2: Degrees in theory, Michael, should it get worse next summer

187
00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:49,719
Speaker 2: if things just stay the same, I.

188
00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:54,400
Speaker 3: Would say probably. Since we're still putting more of the

189
00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:58,120
Speaker 3: greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we might expect it to

190
00:11:58,160 --> 00:12:00,000
Speaker 3: be even warmer next summer.

191
00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:03,520
Speaker 2: Now, what happens if it's dramatically less, then what do

192
00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:05,880
Speaker 2: you say, Well.

193
00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:09,839
Speaker 3: You know, there's always variability from year to year. But

194
00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:12,360
Speaker 3: as I said, if you go back the last twenty

195
00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:17,480
Speaker 3: thirty years, every year has been hotter than the year before.

196
00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:23,280
Speaker 3: So there's a trend of warmer and warmer temperatures. And

197
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:28,360
Speaker 3: so this last couple of years, we've currently hit a

198
00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:33,400
Speaker 3: spot where we're seeing these very elevated temperatures. And as

199
00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:37,079
Speaker 3: I say, this may just be a tipping point that

200
00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:40,280
Speaker 3: we've reached. It's gotten warm enough so that there's so

201
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:43,800
Speaker 3: much extra heat in the atmosphere that we're seeing these

202
00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:50,520
Speaker 3: very very high temperatures across well across the whole world. Essentially.

203
00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:53,240
Speaker 2: That's what really baffles me, Michael. This is not just

204
00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:56,120
Speaker 2: the United States or a North American problem. This is

205
00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:00,600
Speaker 2: worldwide right now. I mean, Greece is on fire, everything's

206
00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:01,440
Speaker 2: going crazy.

207
00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:05,720
Speaker 3: Well, the CO two we put in the atmosphere is

208
00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:09,280
Speaker 3: mixed into the atmosphere goes everywhere. So we're putting CO

209
00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:12,720
Speaker 3: two in China, is you know, every country that's burning

210
00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:15,719
Speaker 3: cross and fuels is adding to the CO two of

211
00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:20,200
Speaker 3: the atmosphere, that that carbon dioxide is mixed around throughout

212
00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,680
Speaker 3: the atmosphere, and so you know you should see a

213
00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:24,240
Speaker 3: fairly uniform warming.

214
00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:30,320
Speaker 2: I did not hear any meteorologists last year predicting this

215
00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:32,840
Speaker 2: kind of weather this summer.

216
00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:36,600
Speaker 3: Did you, I don't think. I don't think if they

217
00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,920
Speaker 3: predicted these kinds of temperatures. But I have a feeling

218
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:41,480
Speaker 3: they'll be predicting them for next year.

219
00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:46,200
Speaker 2: It'll be much easier to predict, that's for sure. Sadly,

220
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:48,280
Speaker 2: back to the asteroids for a moment. When you look

221
00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:52,240
Speaker 2: at the Moon, it's shattered with all kinds of asteroid

222
00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:55,559
Speaker 2: holes and craters and things like that. If you dried

223
00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:59,480
Speaker 2: out the planet Earth, the oceans, and the vegetation, would

224
00:13:59,480 --> 00:13:59,959
Speaker 2: we look to.

225
00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:06,480
Speaker 3: No, because the same we've been hit by the same

226
00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:10,360
Speaker 3: number of things. So there would be the same number

227
00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:13,760
Speaker 3: of craters on the Earth, except that on the Earth

228
00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:18,000
Speaker 3: there's erosion and there's balcanism, and there are all kinds

229
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:22,200
Speaker 3: of things that would tend to erase the craters. And

230
00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:27,880
Speaker 3: so there are about two hundred known verified impact craters

231
00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:32,400
Speaker 3: on the Earth, and we find a couple more every year,

232
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:35,600
Speaker 3: and they're hard to find because they get buried, they

233
00:14:35,640 --> 00:14:38,640
Speaker 3: get erased, you know. But if there was no erosion

234
00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,800
Speaker 3: on the Earth, there was no geological activity, it would

235
00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:42,560
Speaker 3: look like the moon.

236
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:46,480
Speaker 1: Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at

237
00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,760
Speaker 1: one am Eastern, and go to Coast to coastam dot

238
00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:50,600
Speaker 1: com for more