[ConservativeMind]

Are there any estimates as to how bad the title wave would be if it hit the ocean? That’s a much more likely scenario.

[LibWhacker]

Playing around with Purdue's Asteroid Impact Calculator, I get a 10cm (~4in) high tidal wave at 400 miles away, if the asteroid is iron, traveling at 12km/s and impacts the ocean at a 45-degree angle in 2,000 feet of water (check out the link and play around with the numbers yourself... it's fun!).

This asteroid really is a small asteroid. And remember, it may be 60 meters across right now, but while passing through Earth's atmosphere, up to half of it by mass will be ablated away by the heat, or such are the estimates I've seen. So perhaps a rock just 40 meters across will actually impact the ground (and that's assuming it doesn't break up during entry).

In comparison, Barringer Crater (1km across and 750ft deep) in Arizona was made by a 50-meter iron impactor.

[jpsb]

Until we know what it is made of, it is very difficult to predict what kind of damage this thing could do. Some asteroids are little more then a collection of rubble others are solid iron. If it is a collection of rubble then it would most likely burn up in our atmosphere. Solid iron and it would survive the trip down and impact almost completely intact. Dido if it is solid rock. A water impact is the worse case for an asteroid this size since the tidal wave generated by a 60m asteroid would be huge. 100+ feet would be my guess, a land impact would be like a big nuke going off, bad locally but no where near as bad as a 100 foot tidal wave hitting thousands of miles of coastline.

So first thing is to determine it’s make up. Rubble, rock or iron?