By DANIELLE WOOLAGE
 A
giant tidal wave could wash over the region and wipe out the Illawarra
tomorrow, according to University of Wollongong professor Ted
Bryant.
The head of
the university's geosciences department, who has completed a book
titled Tsunami: The Underrated Hazard for release later this month,
said a tsunami could happen at any time.
``It could
occur tomorrow, we just don't know,'' he said.
The professor
who has spent the past 13 years studying the phenomenon said tsunami
- a Japanese word for harbour wave - was a very long wave generated
by earthquakes, underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions and
occasionally meteorites dropping into the ocean.
Tsunami events
are thought to occur once every 600 years off the east coast of
Australia. It is unknown when the last one hit but an underwater
landslide 50km off the coast of Bulli is evidence that a massive
tsunami had already battered the Illawarra coast.
``We just
don't know when,'' Prof Bryant said.
``But there
was an earthquake in Peru in 1868 and a metre-high tsunami came
into Sydney harbour and ripped boats from their moorings.''
Prof Bryant
said if a two-metre tsunami occurred off the continental shelf
near Wollongong people would have less than 20 minutes to head
for the hills.
``The continental
shelf is so close to the shoreline people living near the coast
would have just enough time to get in their cars and drive inland
if a tsunami warning system was in place,'' he said.
``But the
problem with Australia is we only do things after an event.''
In the past
decade 10 major tsunami events have battered the world's coastlines,
including a massive wave in Papua New Guinea which killed almost
3000 people.
Prof Bryant's
advice if a tsunami hits Wollongong: ``Don't race down to Flagstaff
Hill and watch this thing come in. Headlands are one of the regions
prone to tsunami.''
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