Gamma Ray Bursts

[salamanderma]

I'm interested in this as a potential Extinction Level Event. I understand that life would end due to the destruction of the ozone layer, causing cancers and the collapse of the food chain. How long would this take from, say, the catastrophic effects on the ozone layer to the first cancers and then to the extinction of life on Earth? Would anything survive? If a man could survive that initial trauma, what kind of precautions would he need to take in order to go outside? Sorry for the melodrama... I'm a writer interested in what if...

[Fred56]

This one's been done several times, I believe, if you're talking about a disaster scenario. Just do "The Poseidon Adventure", but change the scenery, and the cause of the 'die-saster'. I'll copyright the movie, and we're away laughing..

But Seriously, you'd need a lot of protection from gamma rays from a supernova or GRB, I understand, like several hundred kilometers of granite, say.

[Spyman]

salamanderma, check this thread -> http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=29157

[salamanderma]

Thanks Fred, Spyman. Fred - where has it been done before? I'd appreciate it if you could clue me in. And Spyman - very interesting thread you redirected me to - some brilliant info collated by you. That's great. Do you know any good textbooks that deal with this subject? There's stuff I'm interested in that is perhaps just detail, too frivolous to be included in a serious investigation: how hot would the temperatures get? What would the sunsets be like? Could a man working as a diver at the bottom of the sea survive the initial blast?

[Severian]

It depends on where the supernova or GRB is. We are hit by light from supernovae and GRBs frequently but they are so far away that there is no problem.

[Reaper]

From what I remember, the supernova or the gamma ray burst has to be really close do to any damage to the Earth's ecosystem. Somewhere around 100 light years or so.