Research funded by the Australian Government will investigate tsunamis on the west coast of New Zealand to help understand how much risk they pose to Australia.
Although the recent earthquakes south of New Zealand caused little more than a ripple on Australian shores, researchers estimate that more than 300,000 lives and property worth more than $150bn on the NSW coast are vulnerable to large tsunamis. At present, however, scientists do not have a clear idea about how often such tsunamis occur and how big they might be.