Friday, April 17, 2009

Ocean Impacting Asteroid Won't Kill Us - Quickly

An asteroid falling int the ocean will not wipe out life on Earth, at least not immediately. This according to a recent article in IO9 . Scientists from the University of Oslo have been running simulation of an asteroid apx. 1000 feet across hitting the ocean and the new results seem to indicate that not all is lost.

From the article:
  • The impact initially sends waves hundreds of metres high spreading from the impact site. However, the very height of the waves makes them prone to collapse even in very deep water: they start breaking immediately, like ordinary waves on a beach.
  • By the time they are 30 kilometres from the impact site, they have shrunk to a height of less than 60 metres
Of course there would be other effects, like hurricane force winds and lots of water falling.

Read complete article in IO9

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