A pioneering earthquake analysis has shed new light on the potential for large tsunamis - including one 28 metres tall - sweeping into our coastlines.
While they’re relatively rare events - of 68 recorded since 1840, fewer than a dozen have measured higher than 5m - tsunamis nonetheless pose a major natural hazard, with a worst-case, one-in-500-year tsunami potentially causing up to about 33,000 casualties.
Now, scientists have gained a much deeper insight into that risk, using a 30,000-year catalogue of some 2585 “synthetic” earthquakes measuring greater than magnitude 7.0.
“We can use the model to investigate how individual tsunami events might impact the coast, and how far inland they travel,” said study author Laura Hughes, of Victoria University.
Preliminary results showed the tallest tsunami wave height at the coast – caused by a quake measuring just over magnitude 9.1 - reaching a towering 28m, or the equivalent of a nine-storey building.