• Question: How hot would it have to be in order to wipe out earths entire population ?

    Asked by shasow15 to Colm, Eoin, Joseph, Lauren, Stephen on 15 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Stephen Scully

      Stephen Scully answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      This is not an easy one to answer, I am not aware of anyone putting an exact figure on the temperature at which this would happen.

    • Photo: Eoin O Colgain

      Eoin O Colgain answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. From experience (hot springs in Japan), 37 is just right and anything above, 42 for example, and it feels like one is slowly cooking.

      Given bodies are almost all water, we could easily be boiled away.

    • Photo: Joseph Roche

      Joseph Roche answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      You could wipe out most of Earth’s population if it was so hot that all the water boiled away. That would kill almost everything on Earth… but maybe not the extremophiles. Extremophiles are awesome organisms that can survive in really extreme conditions.

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