The monster waves created by an small asteroid impact would break before they reached land, but you still wouldn’t want to be near one when it hit (Image: Stocktrek Images / Getty)

THE odds of encountering a tsunami kicked up by an asteroid strike have just plummeted. Best to hope, though, that you’re not underneath the almighty splash such an impact could create.

Small impactors hit us far more frequently than larger ones: a 200-metre asteroid hits Earth about every 10,000 years on average, while 10-kilometre objects like the one that probably killed off the dinosaurs strike every 100 million …