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They can, and they do, but because the Pacific "Ring of Fire" bypasses Australia some distance away, to date there have been no significant tsunamis that have hit. Australia is bordered by tectonic plate boundaries in the northwest, northeast and east, where tectonic activity could generate tsunamis capable of hitting Australia within 2-4 hours. For example, if an earthquake were to hit New Zealand's Alpine Fault and its epicentre was located in the ocean, the resulting tsunami could travel across the Tasman and hit Australia's east coast with some considerable force.

Australia has been relatively free of major damaging tsunamis. The largest tsunami to hit Australia occurred on the northwestern coast at Cape Leveque in August 1977. This tsunami was 6m in height, but no one was killed. However, recent research has indicated that, in the past 130 years, the continent has experienced 145 tsunamis, resulting in 11 deaths. 85 percent of these have been along the eastern coast.

Perhaps the second-largest tsunami to hit Australia's shores was one which hit in June 1994. Again, the northwest coast was hit, including Broome, King Bay, Onslow and Carnarvon. In some coastal areas, fish and other ocean creatures were carried inland for 300 metres. Whilst no people died in Australia, this same tsunami killed 200 people just four hours earlier in Java.

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11y ago

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