Good news? New Scientist reports that a University of Oslo researcher ran sims of a 200 meter asteroid hitting Earth in an area of the ocean 5 km. deep. Most people opine that such an impact would result in gigantic waves washing over the shores of the ocean in which the impact occurred. However, the results of these new sims indicate that, while the waves are initially quite large, they collapse and within 30 km. of the impact site are less than 60 m. high, and at 1000 km. are under 10 m. high. So, as long as the impact occurs at least 1000 km. away from land, the waves that hit shouldn't be any worse than those from a tropical storm. Of course, if the impact occurs closer... Oh, and the sims also indicated that enormous quantities of liquid water would be splashed into the air and crash down at 300 m/s within 20 km. of the impact site. So, while the news is better than what was believed before, it's not all roses.
