Can a giant comet break up continents across the Earth, even if it is a magic comet that transform the world into a fantasy world?
A comet big enough to shift tectonic plates would be catastrophically huge. I have a feeling something large enough for that would probably disrupt the spherical integrity of the planet. But if it's going to be magic, then... It can be anything you want. The size of a dime.
How dare you steal my ideas! lol, in all honesty, my idea is only similar to the fact a comet came to Earth.
It might not work like you believe. It would cause earthquakes and the plates might be shifted, even by a considerable amount. The planet would ring like a bell. But for the plates to be shifted enough to form different continents, you'd be looking at significant heating causing molten surfaces over large if not the whole surface. Humans just wouldn't survive such a catastrophe. Of course, you are writing fiction, so who cares?
Maybe a bunch of medium comets (1-2 for each of the smaller continents, 5-10 for each of the larger ones) that would damage the surface of the planet, as opposed to one enormous one that would destroy the whole thing?
Heck, why not use some unique object not yet discovered impacting the Earth? Give it weird properties.
Even if it is a magic comet, I'd expect the mundane aspects of it (mass, velocity, mundane physical aspects of the planet) to behave as normal unless it is explained why, within the context of the magical rules you've established for the world, they fail to do so. If the inhabitants of the world are able to use magic, maybe they can mitigate some of the effects of the impact and you'll get the amount of destruction and other consequences that you want.
I forgot to mention that it is a crystal magic comet; basically a giant crunch of crystallized energy that rewrites reality. After it hits the Earth, changes the human survivors into magical Beast people and animals into monsters. If a comet has to be as big as the moon to change the entire surface on the planet, then nothing will survive, even if the comet is magic. I'll probably make it smaller, but still capable of turning the world into a magical post apocalyptic setting.
If it is basically a ball of energy hitting the planet and spreading this magical/corrupting energy across the world, I'd say you can pretty much go with what you want. That's far enough outside of normal expectations of a comet collision that I think you could hand-wave just about anything and get away with it.
Is the comet a significant part of the story or just a mechanism by which the setting for the story is generated. If it is the latter, you could probably just get away with starting the story and presenting the setting without a need for an explanation for its existence.
If the energy "re-writes" reality, then maybe it spreads exponentially across the planet, starting at ground zero, and a smaller initial comet - with less energy to spread at first - just means that the process starts off more slowly. It still finishes nonetheless, just at a later date than if the comet had been larger?
It is solid with energy within it. The comet is basically a mechanism that generates the altered setting. However, pieces of it became macguffins in the story series.
Where's your imagination? Neil DeGrasse Tyson was on Bill Moyer recently suggesting one interpretation of the evidence was that dark matter was possibly the gravity of another universe adjacent to ours. http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-neil-degrasse-tyson-on-science-religion-and-the-universe/ If Degrasse Tyson can go there, I don't think it's such a stretch outside of known physics to explore reality a bit.
I'm not sure what prompted this, but it reinforces the idea that you either don't read people's posts before replying, or else don't think about what you've read. Or just like to troll. It has grown tiresome enough in the debate forum without the need to spread it around.
What prompted this was just what I quoted which directly followed my post. You've no room to talk about trolling or not reading people's posts. I didn't post about magic, I posted about "some unique object not yet discovered". If your post was not intended to address mine, a simple 'didn't mean to imply' would have sufficed.
if its magic can alter all animal life on the planet, then there's no good reason why it couldn't also shift the continents around any darn way it wants!
My gut reaction based on no particular expert knowledge is that some pretty massive comments have hit this planet and I have not heard of any continents being split. If it were massive enough to do that then it would probably be a biosphere changing event. Not sure many species would survive. Of course astronomers and geologists have no prior experience of magical comets so anything previously published is of nor use. I'm smiling at the thought of a story about a magical comet. Please do write it, perhaps as a tongue-in-cheek story. EDIT: I meant comets hitting this planet and not comments, although I'm sure the latter is true as well.
Thanks. My characters will be the mean focus though. I also wrote an essay that explains how the setting came to be. When the comet entered the solar system, the people tried nuking it with a nuclear missile that can travel by the speed of light. After their attempt to stop the comet failed, the world went into a mass panic while a few people were selected to hibernate in underground tubes to procreate the human species after the comet hits. Then the people outside calmed down and watched their fate. It is only a draft, but it won't be a prologue in my book. I whether leave bread crumbs for the readers to figure out on their own.
