PHOTO: DAVID HALLETT/STUFF Tsunami surges flooded the Governors Bay jetty during the February 28, 2010, event.
Christchurch suburbs as far inland as Avonside and Waltham could be inundated by seawater in a worst-case scenario South American tsunami combined with higher sea levels, new modelling shows.
A report commissioned by the Christchurch City Council says a one-in-2500 year tsunami on top of climate-change induced sea-level rise of 1.06 metres may swamp 73 square kilometres of Christchurch, about 5 per cent of the city.
The water could be 9.5m deep near the Waimakariri River mouth and the speed of the waves in the Avon-Heathcote Estuary may exceed 40kmh.
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