An exercise to test Australia’s readiness to a tsunami threat following an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean showed the impact would be felt in Tasmania just five hours afterwards.
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The PacWave18 exercise on Tuesday involved multiple agencies responding to the simulated threat of a tsunami on Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania.
PacWave18’s simulation showed most of Australia’s east coast would be impacted by the tsunami following a very strong earthquake south of the Solomon Islands.
It was coordinated by the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre, established after the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004.
The centre uses the Bureau of Meteorology and Geoscience Australia to detect and monitor tsunami threats in our region.
Bureau of Meteorology tsunami and storm surge manager Dr Yuelong Miao said the simulated tsunami, if it were real, would have inundated coastal regions in several states and territories.
“We can’t prevent tsunamis from occurring, but the expertise we provide gives our emergency services the best head start to protect lives and property,” Dr Miao said.
“Every second counts in responding to a tsunami, which is why we’ve deployed state-of-the-art detection systems in the Indian and Pacific oceans and have a team of experts operating around the clock.
“We regularly run exercises with simulated tsunamis to ensure we and emergency services are well prepared in the event of an actual tsunami,” he said.
Geoscience Australia’s National Earthquake Alerts Centre monitors earthquakes globally and alerts the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre of earthquakes that could generate a tsunami.
Senior seismologist Dr Jonathan Bathgate said around 50 potentially tsunamigenic earthquakes were detected every year, with Australia’s low-lying coastal areas most vulnerable.