RESEARCHERS have described the ways in which humanity could die out if an asteroid were to strike Earth, with only a small fraction of the casualties coming from the impact itself. The aftermath of an asteroid impact would be more deadly than the collision itself, researchers have said. Earthquakes, tsunamis, wind blasts and a sudden change in air pressure are likely to be more devastating than the impact itself. A team from the University of Southampton said that an asteroid exploding in the sky or hitting land rather than water would be the most deadly. They wrote: "The analysis of average casualty numbers per impactor [asteroid] shows that there is a significant difference in expected loss for airburst and surface impacts and that the average impact over land is an order of magnitude more dangerous than one over water." Wind blasts would be the "most critical impact effect" with such strong wind speeds that they have the potential to "dislocate bodies and objects to cause harm". An