The fact that people have a great impact on the Earth is no longer a secret - the extinction of various animal species, ozone holes and the acidification of the oceans are just a few examples of human influence on the planet.
And what will happen to the Earth if suddenly all the people on it disappear?
It's easy enough to imagine a quiet, devastated planet with ruined houses covered in greenery. But in fact, until the skyscrapers are covered with vines, it will take a lot of time.
According to American documentary filmmakers, the first few weeks without people will be real chaos.
What will happen if there are no people?
. All power plants will be completed first- Without man, they will not be able to produce either light or heat. Also, without electricity, a large number of animals (about 1 billion pigs, 1.5 billion cows and 20 billion chickens) will get out of their pens, farms, in search of food.
. The life of pets depends on people, so they will have to adapt to the new world and start hunting. Most likely, most pets will starve to death. But for some, everything will end even sadder - they will become food for wild cats and dogs.
Most dogs and cats of certain breeds are not suitable for life in the wild. Their places will be taken by feral cats and dogs of mixed breeds and wolves.
. Man throws out a lot of garbage, which serves as food for rats and cockroaches. Without garbage, these animals will become extinct.
. Before the plants reach the houses and cover them, many houses will burn to the ground. Without firefighters, it will be enough, for example, for one lightning that hits a wooden roof to burn not only a house, but an entire village or town.
Today, there are a lot of houses on Earth made using wood, and in 100 years they simply will not be.
They will reach the unburned houses termites and various microorganisms.
. Everything made of steel - cars, bridges - will be next. Without regular maintenance (painting, for example), iron in steel will turn into rust when exposed to oxygen from the air.
Steel buildings in the desert will stand much longer, as the desert has very low levels of moisture, which accelerates rusting elsewhere.
. Roads will collapse or turn into rivers, and underground tunnels (metro, sewerage) will be flooded.
. Hurricanes, storms and other weather phenomena. While many modern buildings are built to last at least 60 years, bridges can last 120 years and dams 250 years, without proper maintenance they will all wear out.
The world of man and the world of nature
. In 40-50 years after the disappearance of people, most houses will collapse. Sidewalks, roads, parking lots and houses that survive the fires will be covered with climbing greenery - bushes, vines, large plants and trees.
. In about 50 years, about 80% of the Earth's territory will be covered with forests, and our planet will be completely covered with vegetation in about 200 years.
. All structures created by man will completely disappear from the face of the planet Earth in a few thousand years. All nuclear power plants, which number about 430, will explode, but the consequences of these explosions will not be as horrifying as many might think.
. Most of the animals oppressed by people will return to their previous level, which was before the rapid development of people.
Invasive species that people have imported and exported will begin to develop in their non-native lands. It is possible that even animals that have escaped from zoos will begin to successfully breed in a new place.
. Only 2-3 weeks after our disappearance, the air on Earth will become much cleaner. But still, a large amount of carbon dioxide that has managed to accumulate in the atmosphere will still have a strong impact on the environment. at least 1,000 years old.
After that, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will return to normal, but radioactive material from sources such as nuclear power plants will remain for a very long time.
Human influence on nature
. Even if people suddenly disappear, they will leave indelible traces behind them.
Mountains of rubbish remain chemicals in plastic packaging and some types of rubber that are resistant to the digestive systems of bacteria that break down natural polymers. All this garbage will not decay naturally.
Garbage of plastic and rubber eventually end up in the oceans and begin to accumulate in layers. After hundreds of millions of years, this debris will either sink to the bottom and accumulate there, or integrate into rock layers and become part of the geological record.
. In 100,000 years, there will no longer be a single visible trace of human presence on Earth.
Dead city Pripyat
It should be noted that the city Pripyat is a great example of what will happen to the Earth after the disappearance of people. After a very short period of time after the Chernobyl disaster, this city was abandoned.
In just a couple of decades, the city has changed a lot - the roofs of many buildings collapsed, as well as a large number of concrete structures just fell down.
In this place nature showed how she can recover from a person. Previously, many experts believed that the territory of the city would turn into a nuclear desert.
But, as it turned out, the local ecosystem is booming- here you can find a large number wolves, wild boars and other predators.
A few years ago, a special scientific project was created that simulated the situation of the complete simultaneous disappearance of humanity from the Earth, the future of the planet and life after people. This study had several weak points - in particular, the potential circumstances of the disappearance of people were completely ignored and the peculiarities of the operation of some iconic engineering structures were not provided. However, in general, this study was considered objective, and its results scientifically sound. So, here are just a few chronological marks of the supposed life of our world without us and the fate of the heritage of mankind:
- one day after the disappearance of people - power outages begin around the world: there is no one to replenish the fuel reserves of power plants, the operation of the turbines stops;
- a week after the disappearance of people - at most nuclear power plants, the water cooling the working zone of the reactors will evaporate, which will lead to accidents similar to the disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima, and radiation contamination of nearby areas. In cities, on the one hand, fires will rage, on the other hand, real floods will begin due to breaks in water supply and sewer systems;
- a month after the disappearance of people - a new series of large fires, this time provoked by explosions of gas cylinders due to strong internal pressure. Many cities located below sea level and protected from the nearest rivers and lakes by dikes and dams will be partially or completely flooded;
- a year after the disappearance of people - settlements will begin to be actively populated by wild animals, including large predators. The cities themselves will gradually turn into islands of the jungle: grass, bushes and trees will begin to grow in the cracks of city streets, in the walls and on the roofs of buildings and structures;
- five years after the disappearance of people - the streets of cities will be covered with a layer of soil and turn into real thickets. All clock mechanisms (with the exception of atomic ones) will stop;
- fifty years after the disappearance of people - an active process of destruction of stone and concrete buildings, structures made of metal structures will remain, but the process of corrosion will begin. All near-Earth artificial satellites will go out of orbit and fall into the water. There will be no sources of electricity left on Earth - solar panels will be covered with a thick layer of dust and will not be able to capture sunlight. Many cities located close to the sea coast will be flooded with sea water slowly rising through inoperative drainage systems. Due to the destruction of storage facilities for toxic substances, mass poisoning of wildlife will occur;
- one hundred years after the disappearance of people - the collapse of most of the large-scale and especially durable structures of mankind, from the Brooklyn Bridge to Big Ben. Destruction of most items of material culture;
- a thousand years after the disappearance of people - only green hills covered with vegetation, with occasional episodic remains of stone and reinforced concrete structures, will remain from the cities. All modern information carriers - paper, magnetic tapes, laser disks - will cease to exist. The memory of civilization will be destroyed;
- ten thousand years after the disappearance of people - the only traces of the existence of mankind on earth will remain individual large-scale stone structures erected in antiquity using exclusively natural materials: the Egyptian pyramids, sections of the Great Wall of China, and the like.
2. What would happen if the Earth were twice as big?
If the diameter of the Earth were twice as large, the mass of the planet would increase by eight times, and the force of gravity on Earth would be twice as strong.3. Who would have lived on Earth if a giant asteroid had not destroyed the dinosaurs?
In all likelihood, they could still rule the Earth. Based on the relatively large brain size of the last dinosaurs, it is possible that some kind of intelligent "dinosauroids" could populate our planet instead of humanity.4. What will happen if all the people on Earth jump at the same time?
If all 7 billion people jumped at the same time, the planet would only move one-hundredth of the radius of one atom. When we land back, the Earth will snap back into place like a spring.5. What happens if the Earth's magnetic poles are reversed?
It could happen, it's just a matter of time. Iron atoms in the liquid outer core of the planet gradually change their orientation every few thousand years.6. What if the forces that form molecules were stronger?
Molecules are formed when protons in neighboring atoms "share" electrons. If the electromagnetic force that drives it changes, then the universe will probably be devoid of life.7. What if the Sun was half the size?
At this size, the star would be much cooler and redder. Of course, there would be no life on Earth in this case.8. What happens if you fire a firearm in space?
If you're in a vacuum between galaxies, pulling the trigger will literally send you racing through space forever. If you shoot a pistol in the solar system, then your bullet will fly away to the Sun or to one of the giant planets. And if you shoot towards the horizon, standing on the moon, then theoretically you can shoot yourself in the back.9. How would people with eagle vision see?
In this case, we could see an ant crawling on the asphalt from the roof of a 10-story building. Objects directly in the field of view would be sharper and with an unfathomable amount of hue.10. What happens if you fall into a volcano?
The high density of lava and its low viscosity means that a person would not drown, but would remain floating on the surface before burning out.The end of the world is a popular subject for science fiction films and novels, but there are very real threats to our existence that could become reality.
Humanity could be wiped off the face of the earth by an asteroid impact or a highly infectious pandemic that could wipe out virtually the entire population of the planet. And despite the fact that many of the apocalyptic scenarios sound a bit fantastic, there are very real risks that we should be wary of today.
Apocalypse Now
If humanity still avoids the end of the world in the near future, whether it be an asteroid or a nuclear catastrophe, scientists still argue that people will still disappear in 500 million years, and in 6 billion years all life on planet Earth will disappear, because it is too get very close to the sun. Our star, which is growing and tending to become a red giant, will almost melt the Earth over time.
Well, 500 million years is a long time for a species of mammals, but the assumptions of scientists often agree that the end of the species of reasonable people will come much sooner, through the fault of the reasonable themselves.
Most of all, scientists fear natural disasters caused by very intense global warming. Pandemics such as swine and bird flu and ebola are another threat to humanity. Last but not least, especially in connection with today's political tension, it is worth mentioning the threat of nuclear war.
More distant threats to the prosperity of the human race on the planet include biological weapons, failures in geoengineering and the development of hostile artificial intelligence.
If we take all this into account, the question arises: if the end of the world came right now, what would become of a planet without people? It won't take long for the Earth to "reset," but the process will be brutal.
Here is the timeline and changes that will take place on Earth if humanity disappears.
A few hours later
The planet will become dark. The electric lights will no longer be lit at night as the power plants run out of fuel. Even solar panels will quickly become covered in dust, and windmills will run out of turbine lubricant.
The only stations that will continue to operate are hydroelectric. Many grandiose dams will be able to work for several months and even years.
Two or three days later
Most stations and subway tunnels will be flooded because pumps shutting off water will stop working.
ten days later
Domestic and farm animals will die of starvation and dehydration. Animals on remote farms will be eaten by predators. At the same time, hungry dogs will huddle together and prey on other animals.
A mounth later
The reactor-cooling water in nuclear power plants will evaporate. This will lead to a series of nuclear disasters more devastating than Fukushima and Chernobyl. But in general, the planet will quickly and easily recover from radioactive contamination.
One year later
Satellites in orbit around the Earth will begin to fall, illuminating the sky with a strange glow of "shooting stars".
twenty five years later
Vegetation will almost completely cover the once concrete streets and alleys of megacities. Some cities like Dubai and Las Vegas will be buried in the sand.
Over time, the vegetation growing in the cities will attract herbivores, and predators will follow.
Without humans, endangered animal and plant species such as whales, snow leopards, tigers and others will thrive and multiply. Perhaps there will be new species.
The swamps that once covered large parts of the planet will reappear in the place of cities like London and St. Petersburg. Nature will take over.
Three hundred years later
Metal buildings, bridges and towers will begin to corrode and collapse, falling to the ground and becoming covered with vegetation or sinking under water.
Ten thousand years later
The only proof of the existence of people on earth will be grandiose stone structures such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall of China and Mount Rushmore.
Silly questions are a great way to learn more about the world. And, if you think about it, they are not so stupid, and curiosity has always been one of the main properties of a person. Today we answer what will happen if all the people on Earth jump at the same time.
For the purity of a thought experiment, let's collect all people in one place - for example, on a piece of Earth with an area of 1 thousand square meters. km, the size of New York. And yes, imagine, we all fit there.
- Let's say the mass of 1 person is 60 kg (let's not forget about children and residents of Asian countries, who generally weigh less than Europeans).
- There are 7.5 billion people on Earth. It turns out that the total mass of mankind is about 450 million tons.
- The mass of the Earth is about 6 sextillions, that is, 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
It turns out that the percentage of the weight of all people from the weight of the Earth is approximately 0.000000000000001%, well, that is, almost round zero. As you can see, there are not as many of us as it seems on the scale of the planet. Physicist Rhett Allen calculated that the energy from our jump would not be enough to arrange something global. But:
- one of the most noticeable effects for us will be the sound of billions of feet hitting the ground at the same time, this rumble will continue for several seconds,
- We're still moving the planet! But only about 0.25 nanometers. This is half the diameter of a hydrogen atom, the smallest atom in the world. This shift will be completely imperceptible, and the Earth will almost immediately return to its normal position.
By the way, there is another opinion, which was presented by astrophysicist Paul Sutter and physicist Mark Boslow. According to their scenario, the effect of the jump of all mankind will be much more tangible:
- they believe that the sound from the landing of all mankind on the asphalt will be so loud (200 dB) that it can burst eardrums and even kill,
- a shock wave will arise, which will give rise to an earthquake of magnitude 4-8, which will cause the destruction of buildings and arrange a tsunami.
Which of these points of view to adopt is up to you. Or maybe there are physicists among you who can make their calculations?
By the way, there was an example in history when an earthquake with a large magnitude had a global effect on the planet. Scientists from NASA said that the Earth's orbit has shifted by several centimeters, and the day has shortened by a millionth of a second after the strongest earthquake in Japan in 2011.
