Asteroid IMPACT, a WHAT IF thread

The Terminator arrives
Since the Earth is covered for the larger part by water it is more likely that the meteorite will strike water than land and since the Pacific is the largest body of water on the planet, I assume for the sake of the depiction that the impact will be in the Pacific Ocean. A strike elsewhere will have equally disastrous or even worse effects.

A meteor of the size of the Terminator, as described earlier, would on impact create a worldwide catastrophe known as an extinction event. Upon entering the atmosphere the air pressure build-up before the meteorite will create a plasma so hot that it will vaporise the water of the ocean, which will push the surrounding water outward with such force as to create mile high killer waves. The meteorite will plunge into the earth's crust, melting it, penetrate into the mantle and explode ejecting a cosmic amount of debris into the atmosphere. Shockwaves sent through (the fault lines in) the Earth's crust and through the magma in the mantle will cause violent earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions all around the so-called Ring of Fire that encircles the Pacific. Giant tsunamis will travel outwards from the impact site, while others will be sparked by the seaquakes following the impact. The molten rock in the impact crater will turn into a boiling cauldron when ocean waters rush back in with steam explosions ejecting yet more material into the atmosphere while the volcanic eruptions triggered by the impact will exacerbate the ash load in the atmosphere.

Questions: How high can we expect those tsunamis to be? How much debris would be ejected into the upper atmosphere? Is it realistic to assume that some or many of the volcanoes in the Ring of fire would erupt? How much ash would that add? Some predict that the shockwaves will travel through the entire surface of the Earth rising mountains when they meet on the opposite side of the Earth. How realistic is that? Wouldn't plate tectonics dampen the shock waves at the edges of plates? Wouldn't thicker continental plates resist the shockwave more than ocean plates?

When silence returns to the scene we can assume that all life in and around the impact site will have been wiped out. Human survivors in the Pacific itself will be few if any. Shockwaves will have destroyed all structures and giant waves will have washed over all but the very highest islands (which are of volcanic origin and thus likely to be affected by secondary disasters).

All countries bordering the Pacific Ocean will be very hard hit with their coastal populations decimated and infrastructure destroyed. The lands will be covered in ash that will burn vegetation, bury arable land, destroy structures by its weight and clog up roads and waterways. When the steam created by the impact will precipitate, violent rainstorms will turn the fallout into noxious lahar. Little or nothing can be done to help survivors. Those who weren't killed by tsunamis, crushed by collapsing buildings, or burnt and asphyxiated by noxious gases and ashes, will die of secondary causes such as exposure, poisoning, dehydration and famine as well as by the hand of fellow survivors in the struggle for the few remaining precious resources as food water and shelter. Infectious diseases are likely to ravage any remaining survivors.

Questions: It is reasonable to assume that the ash load in the troposphere will was out relatively quickly by rain, and if so, what would be a plausible period? Will this material reach outside the Pacific area, or precipitate in the area itself?

Away from the impact site the immediate effects will be less, but still severe. The monstrous tsunamis created by the impact will travel around the world and cause damage and flooding in all coastal regions, with those directly exposed and low lying like many islands in the Indian Ocean hardest hit. Damage to shipping and harbour installations on the East Coasts of Africa and India will be extensive. Direct casualties in areas like Calcutta and Bangladesh will be in the tens of millions

The ocean likely to be least affected in this scenario would be the Atlantic and short term survival chances would be best in areas bordering this ocean. Apart from the (temporary) flooding of coastal areas which will be less severe due to the distance the waves must travel the main short term problem will be the fallout of ash and dust from the impact. The Atlantic area will be shielded from the worst effects by the mountain ranges along the West coasts of the Americas and on the Eur-African coasts by the sheer distance to the impact site. Thus the fallout will not be as dramatic and sudden, but will nonetheless touch every area and impede agriculture, taint water supplies and disrupt traffic and communications.

Question: What would be the most geologically stable spots in and around the Atlantic? I mean the ones least prone to earth quakes, volcanism, tsunamis and flash floods.

The fallout will very likely be followed by extreme weather patterns, due to the disruption of the atmosphere. This may influence climate change locally and globally. Very heavy rainfall will cause flash floods and inundations, average temperatures may show a short upswing in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, which may cause drought in places, but most scientists agree that the most likely medium-term effect of the impact will be a nuclear/volcanic winter. The dust in the upper atmosphere will block out sunlight and average temperatures at the Earth's surface will drop several degrees (by how much, no one can predict). It is even possible that the event may trigger a new ice age although that seems unlikely somehow.

Questions: How long would it take for the dust in the upper atmosphere to settle down on the surface? How long would the volcanic winter last? What are the chances of it leading to an ice age?

The results of the impact on the Eastern seaboard of North and South America and the Western parts of Europe and Africa will play out over a longer period, but still claim many millions of lives. Agriculture, transport and communication will be adversely affected, leading to shortages, resulting in famine and migration, which in turn very likely will lead to armed conflicts and a general breakdown of law and order, many states will cease to exist as effective entities and people will organise themselves in smaller communities. (Migration flows in Europe, for example, will be East-West with people fleeing the more severely affected regions to the East, as well as North-South with people escaping the frozen wastes of the North.) Smaller communities, especially uprooted ones, will struggle with the bare necessities of life and find it very difficult to maintain a scientific, hi-technology infrastructure, as in advanced health care, ICT and the production of many resources required for an industrial, information society. The greatest challenge facing the governments of surviving nations would be to retain and uphold the knowledge infrastructure that would provide humanity with the tools to overcome the disaster.

The states of Europe and North America would have the best chance at succeeding in the latter, The Island nations of Great Britain and Ireland would have an advantage, depending on how severe the winters will be. In Africa and South America, most countries have weak governments and poor infrastructure and lots or ethnic and regional conflicts already brewing and thus a break up into smaller entities is more likely to occur there.

Question: Where would you place your base(s) for survival of the human civilisation?

I hope no one is put off by the large amount of text, but one cannot describe such a momentous effect in a few words (Kaboom! does not tell you much )

I know it is very difficult to predict climatic effects. I was just hoping that there was someone out there who has read more about the issue and who could give a more detailed prediction of whether and how the volcanic winter will occur, how long it will last (does the amount of dust in the upper atmosphere determine the lenght of the effect or merely the intensity (if we conside that the stuff will fall to earth with a fixed speed independent of the amount of material).

Another question I have deals with EMP. It is known that explosions high in the atmosphere cause an electro-magnetic pulse that knocks out electric devices over a large area (I believe the Oregon event in 1972 is known to have had that effect). But, would an explosion a ground level have a similar effect? In other words, would the impact described above knock out (satellite) communications? And if so, over which area?

Re: The Terminator arrives
The place that was designed to save man-kind (and has been doing so ever since).

I imagine that the water boiling off the bottom of the ocean floor will be more of a problem than the dust. A lot of the dust will likely be ejected back into space, while the water will remain in the atmosphere, and be replenished until the ocean floor crusts over.

The clouds will cover the earth, resulting in floods of epic proportions. The earth's albedo will be raised, so that less energy from the sun will penetrate. Simultaneously, the rain will be falling in places that haven't seen rain in ages; glaciers will melt, deserts will flood.

Other survivors may end up being more dangerous than the environment; I envision compounds overrun multiple times by succeeding waves of refugees. The complexity of weapons reducing each time....

Re: The Terminator arrives


OK, jokes apart, I would not place any survival bases in urban areas, because all hell will break loose once the population realises doomsday has arrived. Milwaukee is also unsuitable since it is low lying on the shore of a huge lake (thus prone to flooding). It is also rather far north, so that when the volcanic winter settles in it will become inaccessible.

Any other suggestions?

Rains are good in one sense that they will wash out lots of dust from the lower atmosphere ("blood rain" considering the meteorite is iron-based), but I should calculate more floods into my catastrophe scenario. I had already pictured Timbuctoo flooding (drowning camels in the Sahara form a stark image).
I am not sure, though, that glaciers will melt (anymore than they do already), since temperatures will be dropping. At the elevations where glaciers are found precipitiation is mostly in the form of snow. If any melt occurs it will be short-lived and reversed by the onset of the volcanic winter, the length of which I find hard to determine.
The eruption of mount Tambora (1815) ejected some 100 km3 of material (I don't know how much of it ended up in the atmosphere) which caused a year without summer in 1816 (with snowfalls in June and August). Large volcanic eruptions tend to affect global temperatures for a few years. The amount of material shot up in the atmosphere in case of an asteroid impact will be much more, but I wonder if it also will last longer. If I throw one stone in the air it will come down in a split second, if I throw three stones in the air they will come down with the same speed (considering their mass is the same and they are thrown in the same direction with the same force.) In my mind the volcanic winter caused by a meteorite impact ("meteorite-impact-winter" is such an unwieldy term) would only last longer because the ejected material will reach much higher in the upper atmoshere, if it gets into orbit like you suggested it will remain there very long, which leads me to expect that in the years after the impact many falling stars should be visible (if cloud cover allows) when larger chunks of debris reenter the atmosphere.

Initially, I think the glaciers will melt, but as the immediate effects are over, the more long-term effect will be larger poles, more water locked up in ice. The sea-level will fall, but temperatures will be considerably lower world-wide. An ice-age is entirely possible.

Coastlines will be changed significantly by the waves, flooding, and lower sea-level.

Meanwhile, fresh-water oceans will temporarily thrive inland.

What will be the effect on civilization? It will range from complete savagery to marginally humane. Despotism will be common.

I figured the thing about the coastllines, that's why I was wondering if the satellite communications would still work, so that the protagonists could see satellite images(like the ones taken after the Boxing Day Tsunami).

How fresh the fresh water lakes inland will be, depends on how much filth has come down with the rain. Depending on how and where the meteor strikes it will cause nitric and sulphuric acid to build up in the air. The ash belched out by volcanoes is often also noxious.

The effect on civilisation I will consider in the part about the crew. First I need to address the plan.

The Plan
In a few words: Compose a group of skilled people of various expertise, ages and ethnicity. Prepare them for the job as well as possible in the few months before the impact. Set up bases in different places that can be expected to remain relatively untouched. Stock the bases with supplies. Get a ship, load the people in it (except for the brave ones supervising the land-based supply bases), stuff it with supplies, animals and plants and use this mobile base to sit out the initial disaster and subsequent unpleasantness (The Ark idea). When the sky clears up (if it does), establish a colony in a suitable location (preferably an island) and build it into a self-sustaining population centre from which knowledge can be disseminated to other remaining human populations and from which other (devastated) parts of the world can eventually be repopulated with people, animals and plants.

The ship is central to my plan since it will create a mobile base that should be easier to defend from the break down of society than landlocked bases. It also makes it easier to travel to one or more places where a colony could be successfully established once the worst is over. The most important in the plan is the size and composition of the crew.

The people
Considering I have roughly 6 months to prepare and several millions of dollars at my disposal, I would go about it thus: I would use the first months to accumulate a group of people with as much knowledge and skills as possible. For example, I have my friends and family among which I count a senior executive manager of a software company who is also a pilot and a diver, another software design manager who is also trained as electrician and horticulturist, an accountant who is an experienced welder and shipbuilder, a civil engineer (roads, waterworks, bridges, etc.) who is also a sailor and navigator and so on. So, I look for smart people with multiple skills and as few weaknesses as possible (like genetic disorders, allergies, mental problems, etc.) are preferred. I could imagine myself learning to fly (helicopter and glider would be useful) and extending my knowledge of agriculture (especially greenhouse). I would wish to attract skilled mechanics, especially with knowledge of sterling engines as well as windmills for power generation. I would need people who have skills in animal husbandry and agriculture, veterinarians, metal workers, tool makers, carpenters (ship, construction and furniture) a sail maker and a fisherman.

Naturally, since the survival of the group of experts is essential I would also have an extensive medical team and a group of soldiers (A platoon or two of Swedish mountain troops and/or amphibious infantry would be great, because these are well-disciplined elite soldiers, trained for extreme (cold) conditions. Furthermore, they come from a strong democratic tradition and are not too excitable and they are likely to speak English). We would need them to help ward off possible attacks by pirates and scavengers. When not on duty, they could be trained as animal handlers, mechanics, medics, etc.

Questions: What expertise, not mentioned here would you consider essential for survival of the human civilisation. How numerous and well-armed would our defence force have to be in your opinion.

It would also be beneficial to have a gaggle of kids of different ethnic backgrounds, so I would scour the orphanages of the world, especially in the Pacific, since they are doomed anyway, for smart, healthy children who would be interested in getting a good education. Girls would be preferred, for the possible population growth of a colony is directly linked to the number of fertile females available. Having kids from different places also increases the genetic diversity of the group and thus its chances of surviving a possible genetic bottleneck. Another trick to boost the gene pool aboard could be to invite a bunch of international students over and sort of "kidnap" them, shortly before T-day. It is important to have age variety in the group, although members in diapers or beyond reproductive age should be avoided, we need young people to be trained in the skills of the mission and we need experienced experts to teach them.

Question: What would be the best age for "blank slate" kids (i.e. an age at which they can already be judged for their intellectual potential, but young enough to adapt with relative easy to new surrounding, especially when it comes to language acquisition). I would assume between the ages of 2 and 3 for language acquisition, don't know about other cognitive skills development. How does one test such young kids for their possible intelligence in later life?

All people aboard would have followed a rigid diet in the months before T-day to put on weight. People with fat reserves have more resistance against cold and hunger. (I am already prepared ;-)

The size of the group is open to discussion. A smaller group is easier to manage and feed, but will perhaps have fewer skills and will be more vulnerable to loss of skills if one member dies. Genetic diversity also profits from a larger group. I would consider that at least 300 individuals are needed, but possibly more are needed. We need at least two in each field of expertise (we must remember that unskilled labourers or "foot soldiers" can be probably recruited from the surviving populations, so the focus must lie on skills).

Questions: What would you consider to be the minimum size of the group? What would be the maximum feasible to keep alive for years until the day when we will be able to reap our own harvests and become self-sustaining food-wise. How quickly would/could the colony grow to reach an optimum that would easily support all the specialist knowledge needed to maintain a hi-tech civilisation (In my estimate that number would be in the hundreds of thousands) and start satellite colonies elsewhere. Would/should eugenics (i.e. stopping genetically handicapped people from passing on their flawed genes, as in mental retardation and genetic diseases) play a role in this population policy? Have you any other comments to increase the realism of the set up?

Don't forget the earthquake(s). The richter scale will be off the charts. Probably all the buildings will be shattered as the earth verberates from the impact. The coastal areas will be devastated as there will be several gigantic tsunamis. The dust will hang for a whole year or even years. I wonder if the earth's orbit would be affected. Of course, it depends on the size of the asteroid. If the seasons are affected then it will certainly create a lot of havoc as well. Maybe humankind will be wiped out as we are all, at least most of us, live in urban areas in houses or building and in artificial surroundings i.e. with all the conveniences of modern living.

We have no idea of the duration of the post impact atmospheric and surface effects. The chixclub has led to a series of hypotheses that there were actually 2 strikes , or , if not, the time between the impact and a return to normalcy could have been as much as 20000 years. Being prepared for such a duration means that new subterranean or artificial atmospheres "under glass" will be needed, sort of like Biodome. However, even Biodome was not able to stand up for 10 years without major rebuilding.

Maybe a cave system like Lechiguilla or Mammoth Caves , or the big Polje caves in S E Europe.

GEnetic Diversity is a must.People will be partnered up for many generations , so we best be diverse enough to start so we avoid genetic disorders or lose "vigor"

You better invite a couple of mushroom farmers, these are guys trained in low light farming and preserving spawn for future generations

Livestock Farming specialists and people experienced i hydroponics


If you have 6 months, Id make sure that a couple of servers are loaded with important applied and theoretical knowledge.

Beyond this, I see more need for tradesmen rather than specialists. After all you will probably e able to forage over the remains of the present world to pick parts and gather needed tools and supplies


The Permian extinction and , to some degree, the K layer, had left evidence of large amounts of SO3 and pyrite and limestone. This meant that the atmosphere was "shedding" the equilibrium of excess oxygen and the O2 level dipped below what we have now. We should be ready for this. You may wish to bring a few sherpas on board just for the diversity in low O2.
This will be an evo/devo lab. I,personally, dont think that humans would survive since Mt Toba, when it erupted almost 70000 years ago, almost wiped out all humanity. That was a small eruption compared to the Deccan traps and Columbia Flood BAsalts. Our technology isnt as robust as we think.


I like the way youve organized the presentation of this topic Paasky

Yes, the farmer will suddenly be quite popular after the impact.

Where are you going to store your boat? Anything close to a coastline is likely to be wiped out in the initial catastrophe. Anything far enough away to be safe will make it difficult to transport the boat to the coast.

If this baby hits, I dont thing that boat mooring is gonna be my number one problem.

Hold your horses, I haven't even described the boat, the zoo and the jungle, let alone the stuff! Thanks though for your invaluable contributions. Glad to see that Mr Farmerman is with us. I highly value craftsmen (I teach at a polytechnic after all, not a university), theory alone does not get any job done. So by experts I mean experienced professionals in their fields.

The genetic diversity thing is one of my worries. How to get sufficient members from different ethnicities to the boat in such a short time (I mean the kids, adoption takes too long and kidnapping them is not an option, unless it is just before the impact when the police will have other things on their minds.

I was aiming for a meteorite large enough to cause global destruction and disruption, but small enough to leave room for human survival (otherwise my book will be quite short ) One of my main problems is just what you mentioned: the duration of the atmospheric disturbances is very hard to estimate. I am looking for a an event that would caused perhaps a decade or two of trouble. 20 000 years of mayhem is too long I would guess, but a 20 000 year ice age is doable, provided the earth won't turn into a snowball entirely.

I hadn't given mushroom farming any thought (I had intended on bringing spores though), not only will there be low light circumstances, but also plenty of dead material for the mushrooms to grow on. Mushrooms are quite tasty and dried ones will keep for a long time. Unfortunately, they do ot contain a lot of vitamines.

And yes I had intended to bring a whole battery of servers, etc with multiple redundancies/mirrors and in it I would have loaded as much knowledge as I could get my hands on (Wikipedia, for example, but also where possible "how to" material; detailed descriptions of how to do/make things, how things work, etc.)

I guess one key matter in survival will be access to (renewable) energy sources. After the worst effects of the impact have settled down, there will be lots of stuff to scrounge and scavenge from deserted cities, but one has to be quick about it, for it is amazing how quickly decay sets in if stuff is left alone (Just see the images of Pripyat, the village near Chernobyl).

Considering the impact will be in the Pacific, I intended to keep the boat in the Baltic, moored north of the Åland islands. The tsunamis travelling around the globe will have lost most of their power once they get there. The black sea would be another place that has a very narrow entrance but the political situation in the countries around the sea is less stable, as is the geological situation. The Baltic has no volcanism or active fault lines.

Once the tsunamis have passed (a couple of days for them to travel several times around the globe) I would intend to escape the Baltic (before the winter sets in) and hide out to sea and among different remote Island groups (Faeroer, Shetlands, so as to have access to fresh water and whatever else can be scrounged) while the situation in the surviving nations worsens (It would be far too dangerous to remain in any main port). I expect many others to put to sea, but I would assume that most of them are not well prepared. Their desperation could turn them into pirates, hence the need for an armed contingent. Of course it would be great to have something like a Swedish Visby class corvette escorting us, but I would not hold my breath for that. What I could do is try to obtain a Russian attack helicopter (a multi-role Mi-24 would be suitable) to boost our defences, so long as the dust in the air, or lack of fuel does not prevent us from flying. I will get back with my description of the other elements of the story that I have considered.

The zoo
Farmerman, thanks for the word hydroponics, I had been looking for it. When I was in highschool we had hydroponic cultures of different plants to study in biology, using clay pebbles as a medium. Such a medium is much lighter than pot soil and thus will save weight aboard. However, I would take along a mass of soil (because of some of the animals that thrive in it).

If I understood correctly the effect of volcanic activity on global climate/survival conditions depends on the amount of material that is ejected into the atmosphere, lava flows effect only the area around the volcano (of course the flows in Columbia and the Deccan Traps are gigantic and they were formed over millions of years). I believe that although the Toba event was smaller and short-lived in comparison, its effect was profound, because of the amount of matter it blew into the upper atmosphere (estimated at 800 km3). It was a very explosive event (more similar to an asteroid impact?). I have been to and in the Toba caldera (The area offers fantastic natural beauty, as well as cultural and culinary delights, I can recommend it to you all). When you appreciate the size and depth of the lake that now fills the caldera, you get a faint impression of the magnitude of the eruption. Toba ash layers meters thick have been found in India.

I like to imagine the effect of the asteroid impact in a similar way: a very violent event, with extreme effects, but not longlasting as those flood basalt eruptions. The problem with the asteroid remains that it is impossible to tell what the effects would be. I just read a BBC article about a 160 km crater found in South Africa and their estimates as to the size of the thing vary from 5 to 10 km in diameter and the temperature it created on impact is estimated between 1700 and 14 000 degrees (Centigrade). Those are rather sweeping uncertainties.

The low oxygen element I had not considered (although I did intend to include some poor Bolivian children from the Titicaca region), but now that you mentioned it, I could also include some species like the specialised frogs living in the low oxygen lake. They are edible too! Which brings us to the zoo.

We would have to select a number of animal species that would be helpful to our survival, but that would not pose too many problems in the way of upkeep during the time that is spent sheltering from the direct aftermath of the impact (including the "volcanic winter", not including a possible ice age). My suggestions could include:
• Cattle
I think cows are very useful animals, producing milk, meat, leather and bone. They need lots of fodder however, but that can be minimised by making up a small herd of calves from different smaller races that require less feed. While they are still small they will also consume less. We would keep frozen sperm from a few prize steers to inseminate the cows with when they have reached adulthood. I would prefer to have Jersey cows and Frisian cows in the herd. The latter are not only excellent milk providers, but also quite edible even when old. Any superfluous bulls born could be neutered into oxen. The size of the initial herd depends upon the amount of feed we can manage. (Twelve adult cows consume some 600 tons of feed in three years, or some 15 tons per cow per year).
• Chickens
Chicks have a very varied diet, so they are not very demanding foodwise, they could be let loose on the compost heap to forage and in the process they would improve and enrich it. Chicks produce eggs and meat and again the coop should be filled with individuals of different races to increase genetic diversity.
• Rats
Rats will eat pretty much anything so they are excellent for taking care of biological refuse. They are edible too and breed easily and quickly. The best kind of rat is a matter of discussion. Giant pouch rats are good to eat (own experience) but they are vegetarian and do not breed as easily as common brown or black rats. The need for rats in the zoo is also debatable since they are one of the mammal species that is most likely to survive they disaster anyway.
• Mice
Mice are very easy to keep and breed. Though theoretically edible, their intended use would be to serve as food for the cats, snakes and other small predators.
• Pangolin
This is a scaly ant eater. Since ants and termites have a reasonably good chance to survive the impact this animal should be able to find food once released. Its scales will protect it from surviving small predators while the big ones will in all likelihood have been wiped out. These insectivores are quite tasty and easy to catch. The problem is that they eat only small insects and are thus difficult to keep.
• Frogs
Certain species are edible and all of them form a food supply to many other animals and birds, they live of insects, which have a good chance of surviving the disaster, so food for the adults need not be a problem, Problem is that the tadpoles feed on algae that may be hard hit by the nuclear winter. However, the adults can be kept in a hibernating state for long periods of time.
• Dogs
Dogs, although predators, can survive on a very varied diet. They are edible but their main use would be for companionship and various hunting and guarding tasks. A small number of a small race like the border collie could be kept. No giant monsters seen on the leash of men with small "appendages", no handbag rats carried around by Hollywood wannabe models.
• Cats
Cats are resourceful small predators that have a good chance of surviving on their own in areas where a suitably large population of rodents survives. They are edible too, but their main use would be in keeping rodents away from food stores. A small number of farm cats (no cross-eyed fluffy lap monstrosities) could be kept.
• Fish
Certain kinds of fish will very likely survive the disaster, but it can nonetheless be beneficial to keep one or more species of consumption fish like tilapia. The latter is vegetarian but otherwise not very demanding and it tastes good.
• Crickets
These insects are good to eat and can serve as food for some of the other animals in the zoo.
• Earth worms
Edible, but their main use would be in soil improvement and perhaps as food for other animals.
• Bees
Honey bees depend on flowering plants for their survival and thus have slim chances to survive the volcanic winter. It should be possible to keep several scaled down hives alive by feeding them sugar.
• Bumblebees are useful as pollinators of flowering plants, especially if the bees don't make it (bumblebee queens live long and can hibernate).
• Hedgehogs
These animals are very useful to protect vegetable gardens against snails and insects, and they are protected against attacks from most predators. They can be kept in a hibernating state for a long time and thus will consume little.
• Doves
Doves too are edible, (although I don't like them). They too can subsist on a varied diet and they might be used as homing pigeons. A flock of healthy pigeons could be kept (and it would be odd to have an ark without the proverbial dove).
• Horses
I am not sure about the need for horses. They are edible (although quite tough), but I guess their use lies in transport. A medium coldblood race like the Frisian horse can be used as both saddle horse and carriage horse. However, horses consume lots of fodder and need much attention. I would not consider them as essential.
• Snakes
Many snakes are edible and helpful in that they eat rodents that threaten food stores. A smaller number could be kept in semi-hybernating state.
• Gecko
These small lizards are insectivores and can be let loose in the zoo to feed off the flies and other bugs that are attracted by the animals. Like most reptiles they will hibernate in cool circumstances.
• Goats
The goat is the cow of the poor. Their nutritional demands are much more modest that those of cattle, yet they still provide good meat and milk and strong leather. The problem with goats is that they are quite capable of utterly destroying plant life in their habitat.
• Zooplankton
Essential for survival of life in the oceans. Plankton must be preserved and seeded as soon as circumstances allow, since it is the basis of the food chain in the oceans and fytoplankton (see under the jungle) is a major source of atmospheric oxygen.

The obvious question is which animal species, not on the list, you would consider very important to survival. Is there any animal on the list that ought not be there?

I think that your list of stock should concentrate on those that can live in low oxygen environments.

The mineral boundaries that surround major vulcanism or big bolides (The one in Africa was the biggest in the world, it was called the Vredefoort, its ejecta showed a layer of carbonate rocks and sulfates where O2 was tied up and the O2 sank to less than 10% (in the Coal age times just before permian extinction, Oxygen was as high as 35%, and this excess O2 was given as the reason for all Carboniferous bugs being 2ft across and 2 ft long)

Goats are too smart for keeping in a large compound, they are always figuring things out and causing trouble. (Anyway goats stink). No goats, why not alpaca, the give meat milk, fur, and are real sweeties when domesticated AND, best of all, they are as dumb as dirt.

Ive eaten guinea pig, Im not sure I wanna eat rats, rabbits are a compromise. They arent quite a rat but theyre close enough .

WORMS, a vermiculture experimental composting facility to generate methane, soil, and nutrients for the worms, which can be fed to the tilapia, (or catfish) I love fried catfish.

We need cooking oil.

The cooking oil is coming up in the part about the jungle. The problem with guinea pigs is that their food requirements are narrower, because they cannot make their own vitamine C (just like humans). Rabbits are nice and breed... well, like rabbits, but rabbit meat is less nutricious (It lacks certain amino acids, if I remember correctly). The rat I have eaten tasted very nice, a bit like smoked turkey, and anyway Asteroid-impact-survivors cannot be choosers when it comes to food. :wink: (What do alpaca's eat?)

As to the oxygen problem, I think the drop in oxygen levels is due to the destruction of plant life, especially phytoplankton, so that the oxygen sink caused by the burning of carbon and sulpur, etc. could not be made up for. I will describe an event that is not so severe that a serious drop in oxygen (as in life-threatening) will be experienced, but shortness of breath is allowed

I was intending to have a powerplant aboard the ship made up of a biogas installation coupled to Sterling power generators. After having been fermented for the gas, the remaining pooh can be fed to the worms, crickets and other animals and after that it can be used as fertiliser for the jungle:

Naturally, an array of plant species is essential for the survival of the human race. Fortunately, many of them can be kept for years in the form of seeds until circumstances allow for their cultivation. Others can be taken on as seedlings and cultivated in vitro for the duration of the volcanic winter and then be replanted. There are many useful species, but the specialised tropical species may not be viable. The plants I could think of taking along (in no particular order):
• Cabbage
Everything about the cabbage is edible and very nutricious.
• Beans and peas
These are excellent sources of starch and protein. Dried they will keep very long.
• Birch
Birches grow reasonably quickly also in cold climates. The juice can be drunk, the young leaves are edible as is the inner bark. The outer bark is good for baskets and shoes. The wood is good for furniture and as firewood. It is also a pretty tree and useful for sauna.
• Fruit bearing plants
Many berry bushes are hardy cold resistant plants, berries are full of vitamins. The bushes will provide fruit sooner than fruit trees.
• Fruit trees
Fruit is an important element in the human diet. Certain apple races can grow in cold climates. All fruit can serve as basis for wine making ;-)
• Eucalyptus trees
These trees grow very quickly also under relatively arid conditions. They would serve as firewood and to create forest cover for animals.
• Cedar trees
There are several species of boreal coniferous trees that grow relatively quickly yet produce good wood for construction.
• Rubber trees
So as to have access to latex and rubber.
• Sun flowers
For the oil-rich seeds
• Dandelion
Hardy plant with vitamin rich leaves that can feed people as well as animals. The roots can supply a coffee surrogate.
• Rice
Rice has a very high yield per acre, but it is also highly labour intensive (doubt?).
• Rye
Grows under circumstances in which wheat won't grow. Very nutritious flat bread can be made from rye flour.
• Pumpkin
Hardy plant, edible fruit
• Stinging nettle
Pioneer species rich in vitamin D
• Mushrooms
Different mushroom species are edible and easy to keep once dried. They grow on dead vegetation (of which there will be plenty) and their spores weigh next to nothing (but how long will those spores keep?)
• Willow
Fast growing wetland tree, useful for basket making. Bark has medicinal qualities.
• Chili
Easy to grow, vitamin rich and essential to add flavour to food.
• Onion and garlic
Rich in sulphur and trace elements, good to eat.
• Grasses
Essential as food for the ruminant species in the zoo. In the absence of abundant bird life it can be seeded from the air once the atmospheric and climatic circumstances will allow it to grow.
• Algae
Useful in water treatment, food for small animals.
• Phytoplankton
Essential for the survival of life in the oceans (and reestablishing of oxygen levels in the atmosphere).
• Sugar cane/beet
As a source of sugar and thus alcohol for fuel (rum remains an option).
• Rapeseed
Oil
• Olive trees
Oil and trees that prosper even in dry climates.
• Grapes, coffee, tea and cocoa
A working viticulture is not essential for survival, but it will supply the colony with useful barter goods! The same goes for the other plants.

Many of the (sub)tropical species may not grow well (or at all) in the climate post-impact, but they can be kept in greenhouses until a warm spot has been discovered for them, or until cold-tolerant varieties have been created. Having a very wide variety of (edible) plants increases the chance of finding species that will prosper and thus ensure our survival.

The question would again be wheter you have comments or suggestion concerning the list of species.

Seems that your thinking this out, so Ill start making my list.
The people of the Andes live on a guinea pig diet with potatoes and some other plants like chiles and tomatillos etc. So the vitamin issue are pretty well covered. The animals are very thrifty, converting feed to mass.Alp[acas are a small camel. THey too are eaten but their commercial vlue is in wool and milk.
Some people are severely allergic to eucalyptol and because youll be in a closed environment Im dubious about their desirability. They also can stink up an entire county with a "cat piss" odor

I like the biomass idea, using birch and willow. Back in the late 70's I recall some research that stated a household could harvest a years biomass from 5 acres of birch or willow (black willow ) and use it for all its fuel needs by converting it to pellets. In Florida they have tools in the orange groves called "hedgers" which basically trim orange trees into a shape thats convenient to work beneath.
Obviously this would be a biodiesel machinery world and a high efficiency solarvoltaic energy.