What would life be like on the remnants of a shattered planet?

The year is 2089. The political shenanigans of the day have gotten more out of hand than usual and violent zealots have detonated the Earth's largest deposit of plotium devicide, an extremely versatile chemical compound that in this instance explodes with sufficient power to destroy the Earth. The planet shatters into millions of pieces, ranging in size from dust particles to moon-sized chunks, which mostly remain tumbling around the sun in their old orbit.

Billions of lives are lost and the Earth's biosphere is devastated beyond comprehension. However, plotium devicide can be also be used to construct indestructible bunkers, and several tens of thousands humans managed to survive this catastrophe along with a few decades worth of supplies (they were in the middle of a political crisis, after all). Also, several vaults (not unlike the real-world doomsday seed vault) were also reinforced with PD and were scattered, intact, across the shards of the Earth. These contained the genetic sequences of millions of species of plants, animals, fungi, protista, and bacteria, as well as huge reserves of food and useful technology, such as water purifiers, medicine, and equipment useful for agriculture and electrical infrastructure.

The question is, how screwed are the survivors? Please feel free to bring up any issues you feel are relevant, but I'm primarily curious about the following issues:

• Gravity
  • What would the gravity be like on the surface on some of the larger chunks?
  • What effect would the other chunks have on the gravity you felt?
  • What shape might the chunks form?
• Atmosphere
  • Would there be air, or would the atmosphere be lost into space?
  • Would there be oxygen?
• Surface Features
  • Would any of Old Earth's surface survive and remain recognizable, or would the event be catastrophic enough to leave no features intact? Remember, the explosion shattered the planet; it didn't vaporize or liquefy it (plotium devicide explodes in a highly unusual manner).
  • I'm wondering about mountains, surface water, and (ruined) cities.
• Civilization
  • Given the above points, do the humans have even a chance in hell of surviving, and if so, do they manage to organize? How?

Answers should be based in science but creativity is strongly encouraged. After all, the system was contaminated with huge amounts of plotium devicide, which could have extremely unpredictable effects. Have fun!

posted almost 9 years ago

ApproachingDarknessFish‭

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