A massive ocean asteroid impact could trigger a tsunami taller than skyscrapers, flooding entire continents with almost no warning. Scientists tracking near-Earth objects say a strike in deep water would displace billions of tons of water instantly, sending waves racing across oceans at jet speed.
The asteroid that struck near the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago ended the Mesozoic era and eliminated roughly 80 percent of life on Earth. The impact created a crater more than 100 miles wide and triggered a series of natural disasters, including a tsunami that remains the largest known in the planet’s history.The Chicxulub asteroid, believed to have originated in the outer solar system,…