Historically Significant Tsunamis

Earth movement, especially under the sea, can cause tsunamis, or large sea waves. Tsunamis can travel at very high rates of speed across hundreds of kilometers of ocean. When a tsunami reaches coastal regions, the wave size increases as the wave travels up from the deep ocean to the shallow coastal areas. Historically, tsunamis have caused much property destruction and loss of life.

Major Tsunamis
Date	Origin	Effects	Death Toll (estimated)

June 7, 1692	Puerto Rico Trench, Caribbean	Port Royal, Jamaica, permanently submerged	2,000
1707	Tokaido-Nankaido, Japan		30,000
October 28, 1746	Lima, Peru		3,800
November 1, 1755	Atlantic Ocean	Lisbon destroyed	60,000
February 20, 1835	Peru-Chile Trench	Concepción, Chile, destroyed	Not Known
December 23, 1854	Nankaido, Japan		3,000
August 8, 1868	Peru-Chile Trench	Ships washed several miles inland, town of Arica destroyed	10,000 to 15,000
August 27, 1883	Krakatau	Devastation in East Indies	36,000¹
June 15, 1896	Japan Trench	Swept the east coast of Japan, with waves of 100 ft (30.5 m) at Yoshihimama	27,122
September 30, 1899	Banda Sea, Indonesia		3,620
December 28, 1908	Sicily	East coast of Sicily, including Messina and toe of Italy, badly damaged	84,000
March 3, 1933	Japan Trench	9,000 houses and 8,000 ships destroyed in Sanriku district, Honshu	3,000
April 1, 1946	Aleutian Trench	Damage to Alaska and Hawaii	159
May 22, 1960	South central Chile	Coinciding with a week of earthquakes. Damage to Chile and Hawaii	1,500 (61 in Hawaii)
March 27, 1964	Anchorage, Alaska	Severe damage to south coast of Alaska	115
August 23, 1976	Celebes Sea	Southwest Philippines struck, devastating Alicia, Pagadian, Cotabato, and Davao	8,000
July 12, 1993	Japan Trench	Okushiri Island devastated	200
July 17, 1998	Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Sea	Arop, Warapu, Sissano, and Malol, Papua New Guinea, devastated	2,200
December 26, 2004	Indian Ocean, near Sumatra, Indonesia	Coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Maldives devastated	250,000
July 17, 2006	Indian Ocean, near Java, Indonesia	More than 5,000 people internally displaced in West Java province	668
1. 34,000 people died from the tsunami while 2,000 died from fatal burns from the volcanic eruption.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
United States Geological Survey;
World Health Organization.

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Tsunami; Earthquake

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