Researchers insist there is roughly a 10 percent chance Hawaii could suffer a mega-tsunami over the next half-century that impacts as many as 300,000 people and causes up to $40 billion in damage.

The team of University of Hawaii researchers envision the catastrophe being generated by an Aleutian Islands earthquake and registering a magnitude of at least 9.0.

Chances are Small, but Impact Would be Major  

"These are rare events," said geophysicist Rhett Butler, the lead author of the Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth published study. "They don't happen all the time but there is a chance for them and our effort here is to try to define what that chance might be."

Hawaiian researchers took on the task of studying all the risks in 2011, after an earthquake and tsunami in Japan killed more than 15,000 people.

"This is the one that's more important because it's very close, so we have very little time to evacuate," added co-author Neil Frazer, a professor of geology and geophysics at UH-Manoa.

In the event of such an Aleutian Island generated tragedy, the consensus among experts is that residents would have no more than four hours to get to higher land before the quake would arrive on shores.

Researchers now Plan to Study Smaller Pacific Quakes 

Researchers now plan to turn their attention to looking at risks to the island from tsunamis generated by smaller earthquakes in the Pacific

Butler stressed the study wasn't conducted to scare people, but to remind island residents to always be prepared for the possibility of a catastrophic event and be prepared.