100 years, we remain vulnerable and largely defenseless in the fall of an asteroid on our planet. A new study comes to reveal what would happen if a small space rock to fall on our planet. The impact looks like it will be really nightmare even if the asteroid falls in the middle of the ocean.
The simulations
Given that 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, if you drop an asteroid on Earth, the more likely it is to end up in some ocean. Scientists of the National Laboratory of the USA in Los Alamos (LANL) carried out a series of simulations for the consequences of the fall of an asteroid in the ocean. The researchers studied a lot of scenarios, each of which had to do with different-sized asteroid, a different speed and angle of a fall.
As is obvious, the first thing which has been dealt with by the researchers was what happens with the giant tsunami caused by the fall. The simulations showed that if an asteroid with a diameter of no greater than 250 meters fall in the middle of the ocean will create a glut of huge tsunami, but this will not threaten the shores. But if the asteroid falls at a distance of 10-20 km. from the coast, the tsunami will sweep coastal areas with all that this implies.
The second important consequence of the fall of an asteroid into the ocean would be a lot of billion. tons of water to evaporate with the water vapor to rise to the stratosphere and remain there for a period of many months, or even years. This is in accordance with researchers, will cause climate changes in the type and intensity of which cannot be calculated.
Source
What will happen if you drop an asteroid into the ocean?
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