"Tsunamis triggered by asteroid impacts cause a disaster similar to the 2004 Asian tsunami once every 6000 years on average, according to the first detailed analysis of their effects."
"For example, the model shows that waves radiating from the impact of a 300-metre-wide asteroid would carry 300 times more energy than the 2004 Asian tsunami. You can view movies of impact simulations in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Pacific (all in .mov format).
"The most common asteroids, between 100 m and 400 m, would yield tsunami waves up to 10 m when they arrived at the coast. A total of about 50 million coastal residents are vulnerable to such waves, though no single impact would affect them all. The researchers predict a tsunami-generating impact should occur about once every 6000 years, and would on average affect over one million people and cause $110 billion in property damage."
"The study also showed that asteroid impacts in the 300-metre class might be similar to the huge tsunamis thrown up when massive chunks of rock break from the sides of volcanoes and fall into the ocean. These events are also thought to occur roughly once every 6000 years."
"The analysis confirms suspicions that tsunamis are the biggest risk posed by asteroid impacts. The risks from climate effects of big impacts – through dust and smoke that blocks out the Sun – are about two-thirds that of tsunamis, while those of land impacts are about one-third of the tsunami risk."
"Tsunami risk of asteroid strikes revealed"
Jeff Hecht
NewScientist.com
12 May 2006
Link: Article
Natural Hazards
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Issue: Volume 38, Number 3
Date: July 2006
Link: "Natural Hazards" Journal
Simulations of Impact
Source:
Steven N. Ward
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
University of California, Santa Cruz
Link: Simulations
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