On the Possible Hazard on the Major Cities Caused by Asteroid Impact in the Pacific Ocean – II

Earlier, it was pointed out that asteroids with diameters close to 200 m that hit the Pacific Ocean once in 10⁴ y create large tsunami waves which could cause serious hazards to the cities and countries lying along the periphery. Here, a more detailed investigation is carried out in relation to tsunami hazards created by earthquakes. It is shown that the energy involved in the asteroid induced tsunami wave is some 300 times greater than large tsunami waves and 100 times greater than the Chile tsunami of 1960, the largest this century. Second, if the impact should take place in the Pacific south of Japan, so that the tsunami wave enters Tokyo Bay, the damage could cost 800 billion dollars, which is 6 times greater than the damage due to the Hanshin (Kōbe-Osaka) earthquake of 1995. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.