What Would Happen To Neighboring Areas If Kilometer-Wide Asteroid Hits A US City?

An impact simulator revealed what would happen to neighboring cities if the largest potentially hazardous asteroid on NASA’s list hits Seattle, Washington.

The grim scenario involving a major asteroid impact on a U.S. city was simulated by a Quora user named David Filmer. According to Filmer, he came up with the simulation by using the impact simulators developed by Purdue University and the Imperial College in London.

For the simulation, Filmer used the largest asteroid on the list maintained by NASA’s Sentry, which is an automated collision monitoring system that tracks space rocks with non-zero impact probabilities.

The asteroid, identified as 29075 (1950 DA), travels at an average speed of 40,200 miles per hour and is about 4,265 feet wide. According to NASA, this asteroid has a slight chance of hitting Earth in 2880.

Using details about the asteroid, Filmer simulated what would happen to him if an asteroid hits Seattle while he’s in Portland, Oregon, which is about 200 miles away.

Of course, the massive impact event would have devastating effects on Seattle and most likely certain parts of Washington. However, for cities in neighboring states such as Portland, the effects of the asteroid impact will only be minimal.

According to Filmer, the heat from blast waves generated by the asteroid strike in Seattle will eventually reach Portland. However, for residents of the city, it would only feel like a mild sunburn.

“The fireball could cause first-degree burns to exposed skin,” Filmer wrote.

Those in Portland will also feel faint earthquakes caused by the Earth impact. Probably the most intense effects residents will encounter are the dust storms as well as the strong winds that will be generated by an asteroid strike 200 miles away.

“There will be 1 centimeter (1/3 of an inch) layer of fine dust ejecta with occasional larger fragments (average diameter 1/4 of an inch, or about the size of a pea),” Filmer stated. “This would be comparable to a minor hail storm.”

“Air blast of 98.5 miles per hour [masximum] (barely a Category 2 hurricane by 2 miles per hour); could break windows and blow down 30 percent of trees,” he added.