Near-Field Effects of Asteroid Impacts in Deep Water
Gisler, G.¹; Weaver, R.^2
1University of Oslo; ²Los Alamos National Laboratory

Our previous work has shown that ocean impacts of asteroids below 500m in diameter do not produce devastating long-distance tsunamis. Nevertheless, a significant portion of the ocean lies close enough to land that near-field effects may prove to be the greatest danger from asteroid impacts in the ocean. Crown splashes and central jets that rise up many kilometers into the atmosphere can produce, upon their collapse, highly non-linear breaking waves that could devastate shorelines within a hundred kilometers of the impact site. We present illustrative calculations, in two and three dimensions, of such impacts for a range of asteroid sizes and impact angles, and estimate the risk exposure.