Tsunami and Earthquake Research Active
Here you will find general information on the science behind tsunami generation, computer animations of tsunamis, and summaries of past field studies.
Learn More
Background information and links to our other tsunami research projects.
The scope of tsunami research within the USGS, however, is broader than the topics covered here. USGS researchers have also provided critical research toward understanding how sediments are transported during tsunami runup and deciphering the geologic record of prehistoric tsunamis. The USGS collaborates closely with the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research.
As part of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, the USGS has also upgraded the seismograph network and communication functions of the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center.
Soon after the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 many people have asked, “Could such a tsunami happen in the United States?” As a starting point, read “Could It Happen Here?”
Starting points:
- Could It Happen Here?
- Life of a Tsunami
- Local Tsunamis in the Pacific Northwest
-
- Not all tsunamis are generated by earthquakes
- Tsunamis can be caused by volcanoes, landslides, and even atmospheric disturbances
- Data from tide gauges can help unravel the complex physics of these sources
Tsunami events:
March 11, 2011, Japan
- Preliminary simulations of the tsunami
- Notes from the field: International Tsunami Team visits Japan before (2010) and after (May 2011);
plus eyewitness accounts from California on March 11
September 29, 2009, Samoa
- Preliminary analysis of the tsunami
- USGS scientists in Samoa and American Samoa studying impacts of tsunami
April 1, 2007, Solomon Islands
March 28, 2005, Sumatra
- Analysis and comparison of the December 2004 and March 2005 tsunamis
- Field study of the effects of the December 2004 and March 2005 earthquakes and tsunamis - April 2005
December 26, 2004, Sumatra-Andaman Islands
- Tsunami generation from the 2004 M=9.1 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake
- Initial findings on tsunami sand deposits, damage, and inundation in Sumatra - January 2005
- Initial findings on tsunami sand deposits, damage, and inundation in Sri Lanka - January 2005
June 23, 2001, Peru
- Preliminary analysis of the tsunami generated by the earthquake
- Preliminary analysis of sedimentary deposits from the tsunami
July 17, 1998, Papua New Guinea
Below are current tsunami studies and tsunami education materials.
PubTalk 1/2017 — Unusual sources of tsunamis
A presentation on "Unusual Sources of Tsunamis From Krakatoa to Monterey Bay" by Eric Geist, USGS Research Geophysicist
- Not all tsunamis are generated by earthquakes.
- Tsunamis can be caused by volcanoes, landslides, and even atmospheric disturbances
- Data from tide gauges can help unravel the complex physics of these sources
Below are USGS publications on a wide variety of topics related to tsunamis.
A framework for the probabilistic analysis of meteotsunamis
Book review: Three great tsunamis: Lisbon (1755), Sumatra-Andaman (2004), and Japan (2011)
Undersampling power-law size distributions: effect on the assessment of extreme natural hazards
Source and progression of a submarine landslide and tsunami: The 1964 Great Alaska earthquake at Valdez
Earthquake mechanism and seafloor deformation for tsunami generation
Explanation of temporal clustering of tsunami sources using the epidemic-type aftershock sequence model
Tsunami flooding
Near-field tsunami edge waves and complex earthquake rupture
Chapter two: Phenomenology of tsunamis II: Scaling, event statistics, and inter-event triggering
Book review: Extreme ocean waves
Assessing historical rate changes in global tsunami occurrence
Assessment of tsunami hazard to the U.S. East Coast using relationships between submarine landslides and earthquakes
Below are news stories about tsunamis.
Below are FAQs associated with tsunamis.
- Overview
Here you will find general information on the science behind tsunami generation, computer animations of tsunamis, and summaries of past field studies.
Learn MoreBackground information and links to our other tsunami research projects.
The scope of tsunami research within the USGS, however, is broader than the topics covered here. USGS researchers have also provided critical research toward understanding how sediments are transported during tsunami runup and deciphering the geologic record of prehistoric tsunamis. The USGS collaborates closely with the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research.
As part of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, the USGS has also upgraded the seismograph network and communication functions of the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center.
Soon after the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 many people have asked, “Could such a tsunami happen in the United States?” As a starting point, read “Could It Happen Here?”
Starting points:
- Could It Happen Here?
- Life of a Tsunami
- Local Tsunamis in the Pacific Northwest
-
- Not all tsunamis are generated by earthquakes
- Tsunamis can be caused by volcanoes, landslides, and even atmospheric disturbances
- Data from tide gauges can help unravel the complex physics of these sources
Tsunami events:
March 11, 2011, Japan
- Preliminary simulations of the tsunami
- Notes from the field: International Tsunami Team visits Japan before (2010) and after (May 2011);
plus eyewitness accounts from California on March 11
September 29, 2009, Samoa
- Preliminary analysis of the tsunami
- USGS scientists in Samoa and American Samoa studying impacts of tsunami
April 1, 2007, Solomon Islands
March 28, 2005, Sumatra
- Analysis and comparison of the December 2004 and March 2005 tsunamis
- Field study of the effects of the December 2004 and March 2005 earthquakes and tsunamis - April 2005
December 26, 2004, Sumatra-Andaman Islands
- Tsunami generation from the 2004 M=9.1 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake
- Initial findings on tsunami sand deposits, damage, and inundation in Sumatra - January 2005
- Initial findings on tsunami sand deposits, damage, and inundation in Sri Lanka - January 2005
June 23, 2001, Peru
- Preliminary analysis of the tsunami generated by the earthquake
- Preliminary analysis of sedimentary deposits from the tsunami
July 17, 1998, Papua New Guinea
- Science
Below are current tsunami studies and tsunami education materials.
- Multimedia
PubTalk 1/2017 — Unusual sources of tsunamis
A presentation on "Unusual Sources of Tsunamis From Krakatoa to Monterey Bay" by Eric Geist, USGS Research Geophysicist
- Not all tsunamis are generated by earthquakes.
- Tsunamis can be caused by volcanoes, landslides, and even atmospheric disturbances
- Data from tide gauges can help unravel the complex physics of these sources - Publications
Below are USGS publications on a wide variety of topics related to tsunamis.
Filter Total Items: 45A framework for the probabilistic analysis of meteotsunamis
A probabilistic technique is developed to assess the hazard from meteotsunamis. Meteotsunamis are unusual sea-level events, generated when the speed of an atmospheric pressure or wind disturbance is comparable to the phase speed of long waves in the ocean. A general aggregation equation is proposed for the probabilistic analysis, based on previous frameworks established for both tsunamis and stormAuthorsEric L. Geist, Uri S. ten Brink, Matthew D. GoveBook review: Three great tsunamis: Lisbon (1755), Sumatra-Andaman (2004), and Japan (2011)
“Three Great Tsunamis: Lisbon (1755), Sumatra–Andaman (2004), and Japan (2011)” is published in Springer’s new series SpringerBriefs. According to Springer’s website, the SpringBriefs volumes are intended to provide “concise summaries of cutting-edge research and practical applications across a wide spectrum of fields”. Among the several categories considered for SpringerBriefs are in-depth case sAuthorsEric L. GeistUndersampling power-law size distributions: effect on the assessment of extreme natural hazards
The effect of undersampling on estimating the size of extreme natural hazards from historical data is examined. Tests using synthetic catalogs indicate that the tail of an empirical size distribution sampled from a pure Pareto probability distribution can range from having one-to-several unusually large events to appearing depleted, relative to the parent distribution. Both of these effects are arAuthorsEric L. Geist, Thomas E. ParsonsSource and progression of a submarine landslide and tsunami: The 1964 Great Alaska earthquake at Valdez
Like many subduction zone earthquakes, the deadliest aspects of the 1964 M = 9.2 Alaska earthquake were the tsunamis it caused. The worst of these were generated by local submarine landslides induced by the earthquake. These caused high runups, engulfing several coastal towns in Prince William Sound. In this paper, we study one of these cases in detail, the Port Valdez submarine landslide and tsunAuthorsThomas E. Parsons, Eric L. Geist, Holly F. Ryan, Homa J. Lee, Peter J. Haeussler, Patrick Lynett, Patrick E. Hart, Ray W. Sliter, Emily C. RolandEarthquake mechanism and seafloor deformation for tsunami generation
Tsunamis are generated in the ocean by rapidly displacing the entire water column over a significant area. The potential energy resulting from this disturbance is balanced with the kinetic energy of the waves during propagation. Only a handful of submarine geologic phenomena can generate tsunamis: large-magnitude earthquakes, large landslides, and volcanic processes. Asteroid and subaerial landsliAuthorsEric L. Geist, David D. OglesbyExplanation of temporal clustering of tsunami sources using the epidemic-type aftershock sequence model
Temporal clustering of tsunami sources is examined in terms of a branching process model. It previously was observed that there are more short interevent times between consecutive tsunami sources than expected from a stationary Poisson process. The epidemic‐type aftershock sequence (ETAS) branching process model is fitted to tsunami catalog events, using the earthquake magnitude of the causative eAuthorsEric L. GeistTsunami flooding
Panel 5 focused on tsunami flooding with an emphasis on Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis (PTHA) as derived from its counterpart, Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) that determines seismic ground-motion hazards. The Panel reviewed current practices in PTHA and determined the viability of extending the analysis to extreme design probabilities (i.e., 10-4 to 10-6). In addition to eAuthorsEric Geist, Henry Jones, Mark McBride, Randy FedorsNear-field tsunami edge waves and complex earthquake rupture
The effect of distributed coseismic slip on progressive, near-field edge waves is examined for continental shelf tsunamis. Detailed observations of edge waves are difficult to separate from the other tsunami phases that are observed on tide gauge records. In this study, analytic methods are used to compute tsunami edge waves distributed over a finite number of modes and for uniformly sloping bathyAuthorsEric L. GeistChapter two: Phenomenology of tsunamis II: Scaling, event statistics, and inter-event triggering
Observations related to tsunami catalogs are reviewed and described in a phenomenological framework. An examination of scaling relationships between earthquake size (as expressed by scalar seismic moment and mean slip) and tsunami size (as expressed by mean and maximum local run-up and maximum far-field amplitude) indicates that scaling is significant at the 95% confidence level, although there isAuthorsEric L. GeistBook review: Extreme ocean waves
‘‘Extreme Ocean Waves’’ is a collection of ten papers edited by Efim Pelinovsky and Christian Kharif that followed the April 2007 meeting of the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union. A note on terminology: extreme waves in this volume broadly encompass different types of waves, includ- ing deep-water and shallow-water rogue waves (alternatively termed freak waves), storm surges fromAuthorsEric L. GeistAssessing historical rate changes in global tsunami occurrence
The global catalogue of tsunami events is examined to determine if transient variations in tsunami rates are consistent with a Poisson process commonly assumed for tsunami hazard assessments. The primary data analyzed are tsunamis with maximum sizes >1m. The record of these tsunamis appears to be complete since approximately 1890. A secondary data set of tsunamis >0.1m is also analyzed that appearAuthorsE.L. Geist, T. ParsonsAssessment of tsunami hazard to the U.S. East Coast using relationships between submarine landslides and earthquakes
Submarine landslides along the continental slope of the U.S. Atlantic margin are potential sources for tsunamis along the U.S. East coast. The magnitude of potential tsunamis depends on the volume and location of the landslides, and tsunami frequency depends on their recurrence interval. However, the size and recurrence interval of submarine landslides along the U.S. Atlantic margin is poorly knowAuthorsUri S. ten Brink, H. J. Lee, E.L. Geist, D. Twichell - News
Below are news stories about tsunamis.
- FAQ
Below are FAQs associated with tsunamis.