The largest waves recorded in Tasmania sit at around 1.5 metres high and arrived after 9.1 magnitude earthquakes in Alaska and Indonesia.
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Island communities are the most vulnerable to tsunami risk, according to the Australian Climate Service, with a Tasmanian disaster risk assessment billing it as a low probability with "potentially catastrophic consequences" on east coast and south east coastlines.
This New Years Day a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Japan, and prompted general tsunami warnings in that country against 3 metre waves.
As this tsunami risk gathers in global ocean waters, The Examiner takes a look at the history of freak wave and tide events in Tasmania.
Small tsunami's recorded in Tasmania since European settlement
The earliest records from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology show "remarkable", "extraordinary" and the "very sudden" rise and fall of tides in southern Tasmania in the 1850s.
On Christmas Day in 1882, successive 1.2 metre waves were recorded at Stanley.
A historical record of tsunamis compiled in 2009 by Mineral Resources Tasmania shows wave events occurring in Tasmania after significant earthquakes across the world.
On December 27, 2004, following the 9.6 magnitude earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, a witness recorded 1.5 metre waves at Cockle Creek, while 60 cm waves were recorded at Spring Bay on the East Coast.
In March 1964, following a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Alaska, US, there were 1.5 metre waves recorded in Hobart, and in May 1960, following a 9.5 magnitude earthquake in Chile, there were 60 cm waves recorded.
Meanwhile a freak wave estimated to be 2.4 metres was reported at Bridport in 1953, and resulted in the death of a nine-year-old child.
An article in The Examiner on 16 November, 1953, provided eye-witness accounts of a wave hitting the Brid River "with a loud roar", picking up fishing boats and destroying a jetty.
"The first wave was followed by two smaller waves. The wave appeared to lift out of the sea," the report said.
"At Eastmans Beach, Bridport's most popular beach, the wave travelled about 40 yards, climbed a three-foot breakwater and spread over the lawn."
Modelling predicts a one in 13,000 year tsunami
Little was known about Tasmania's tsunami risks until the 2004 tsunami that devastated the coastlines of Indonesia.
This prompted research into the field, with a 2016 Tasmanian State Natural Disaster Risk Assessment predicting a large tsunami every 13,000 years.
A 2022 study by Mineral Resources Tasmania showed that the state's east coast was susceptible to tsunami that originate from the Pacific Ocean, with Scamander and Douglas River, St Helens, Beaumaris and Bicheno most at risk.
An evaluation of the tsunami-related impacts on Tasmania following the 2022 volcanic eruption in Tonga was also completed.
It recommended better monitoring of such impacts, including reliable water-level monitoring
The authors recommend that improvements in the distribution and coverage of permanent water level monitoring gauges would greatly assist