The reason our visualization team picked Seattle (not my choice!) was because these calculations were first presented at a meeting dedicated to asteroid-generated tsunamis at the Tsunami Research Center at PMEL in Seattle. Only a little irony.

In this study we concentrated on smaller asteroids because those are the most common ones, most likely to hit us. We’ve done larger ones in previous studies, and indeed, those that penetrate all the way to the ocean floor can make serious waves. You need a body greater than 20% the ocean depth to do that, thus in a 5…