If a very large astroid hit the ocean, would the water compress?

Question

If not, what?

Answer 1

A large asteroid would probably hit the ocean floor milli-seconds after it hit the water. Yes some water would compress , most would instantly vaporize along with a large portion of the ocean bottom sending a huge plume into the atmosphere and ejecting some material into space.

There would be a seismic wave generated and a tsunami would follow. As the plume lost momentum, it too would fall back to the ocean causing yet another equally devastating tsunami.

Answer 2

Water doesn't compress very well. The energy would be released in a very big explosion sending up severaal tons of water as spary and steam. The majority of energy would be used moving water out of the wake of the asteroid. This would cause massive tsunamis (possibly as large as 1000 ft high) around the world. Not much left of the oceans after that.

Answer 3

I suspect that the Earth's ocean bottoms are covered with burning asteroids.These asteroids could be the cause of powerfull undercurrents or riptides I also suspect that at some time in the past the Earth was hit so hard by meteors that the oceans were displaced to the sky.I'm seeing meteors as non atomic,anti matter like debris not a result of the Big Bang or star cycle phenomena.

Answer 4

Two good depictions of this have been done by the writing team of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Their novel Hammer of God shows the aftermath of Earth being hit by a comet; the disruption of ecosystems and climate.

Their novel Footfall shows the result of hostile aliens shoving a big asteroid in Earth's direction, when we would not immediately submit.

(Estimated impact energies of 4000 megatons. The tsunami hit the Himalayas. India was wiped off the face of the Earth. Over a billion people gone, just like that. You think the tsunami they had a couple years ago was bad? That was under 200,000 people. This would be 5000 times as bad.)

PS: we got really, really mad at the aliens.

Answer 5

I will cause a tsunami and kill lots and lots of people. The force of the water moving away from the asteroid will be much more than the compress. Why would the water compress?

Answer 6

No the major part of the energy would be expressed as a steam explosion from shock heating. There would also be a very large very fast mono nodal tidal wave! It would in short be a major disaster, It would make a good Hollywood movie!
water is notably non compressible.

Answer 7

The compression would be slight at best. The energy would be sent all around the worlds oceans in an efficient manner. This will result in tidal waves for all the coasts.

Answer 8

Yes, it water can be compressed a very little bit but only during the impact. The pressure will divide over all oceans (Pascal's law)
Th

Answer 9

A large amount would flash into super hot steam on impact.
The force of the trans sonic shockwave from the impact would compress a fair amount I suppose.

Answer 10

no, water doesn't compress, the asteroid would cause a wave