Well, the earth is 70% water, so chances are these things will hit in the middle of an ocean. Then, most areas of land are unpopulated still believe it or not. Take the land mass of the North Pole, Northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia, the South Pole, etc...
Chances are good that these won't make direct hits on a populated area. But, there always is a chance, and somebody wins the lottery.
If this sucker hit downtown L.A. or hit about 2 miles off in the ocean in L.A. Harbor, we would still be talking about the damage. Direct hit of this thing in L.A. would make 9-11 look like a small death count in comparison.
.....or even the US of A.
It never ceased to amaze me, during my days as a pilot, crisscrossing the country, how much wide open space there is in this country. The morons who complain about 'overpopulation' have apparently never bothered to fly a commercial airline and actually look out of the window.
We have a very, VERY large country, folks, and it is overwhelmingly un- or under-populated.
Did i miss something? Land has been discovered at the North Pole? Who da thunk it!
The numbers here just do not add up. 40 sq miles of destruction, 200 tons of TNT? Hmmm, the Hiroshima bomb was about 15,000 tons of TNT and detonated at an optimal altitude and did not cause 40 sq miles of total destruction. Maybe a few sq miles.
I wish reporters were smart enough to know what they are reporting on. The state of journalism is really sad, clueless people writing articles full of obvious mis statements of fact. Oh well, public schools I guess.