When I first heard about the catastrophe I wondered if it could have been caused by an asteroid hitting the ocean. It turned out to be an undersea earthquake but the effects of an impact would have been similar.

Now there is talk of setting up a Tsunami early warning system. I just hope it includes sky watching. Right now the Southern Hemisphere is almost blind to NEO's. I did a search to find out if anyone else was thinking along the same lines.

Comment on the SE Asian tsunami disaster, 26 Dec 04. This page is mainly concerned with prevention of future tsunami disasters.

Tsunami from Asteroid/Comet Impacts.

Right now we can't clearly see the shooting gallery we are standing in. As for deflecting or destroying the bullets headed our way, just forget about it. We have nothing built that could reach an asteroid or comet early enough in its journey to nudge it away. We are blind and naked.

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If I'm correct the tsunmai early warning systems only go off when a serious earthquake is happening, so at the moment the "source" of the tsunami comes into action. Wouldn't these warning systems sense the impact of an asteroid as well? That would give the same amount of warning time as for an earthquake in sea.

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Nope, you´ve got a sentinel in me. 8)

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I can only imagine the tsunami from a 10 km asteroid. I would guess that it could create tsunamis over a mile high; I wouldn't be surprised if it emptied out a large portion of the entire Gulf of Mexico.

Now those giant asteroids during the Heavy Bombardment Period... That would be a sight to behold. Oceans boiling, land vaporizing... total disaster. 8)

"If you hear the tsunami warning signal, or see a tsunami measurement buoy flying overhead, run for higher ground as soon as possible"

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A Science Channel program tonight put the waves from the 10 km Chicxulub asteroid at 40 km high. That must have been the initial height, followed by diminished waves of only, say 10 to 20 km.

BTW, in the illustration of the Chicxulub impact, the asteroid is a bit oversized. Curve fitting shows it to be about 1150 km along what appears to be its major diameter.



I've seen this illustration many times before and wonder what event it's actually supposed to represent.

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Cool, so am I correct in guessing that the wave height would greater than the size of the impactor in most cases?

I've also seen the picture in most books and websites about asteroids. Is it supposed to represent the collision that created the moon or any specific event?

Its smaller bodies I'm more concerned about. The Chicxulub asteroid did a lot more than create Tsunami's but it's rare for something that large to find us. The smaller the rock the greater the frequency. Like that one which hit Siberia last century wiping out a whole forest. Luckily the area was largely uninhabited by people. If it had hit the sea it could have been worse.

Only recently an asteroid the length of a football stadium passed between the Earth and the moon. Astronomers spotted it 4 days after it had passed us by. That doesn't inspire confidence.

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