List of tsunamis

This article lists notable tsunamis, which are sorted by the date and location that they occurred.
Because of seismic and volcanic activity associated with tectonic plate boundaries along the Pacific Ring of Fire, tsunamis occur most frequently in the Pacific Ocean, but are a worldwide natural phenomenon. They are possible wherever large bodies of water are found, including inland lakes, where they can be caused by landslides and glacier calving. Very small tsunamis, non-destructive and undetectable without specialized equipment, occur frequently as a result of minor earthquakes and other events.
Around 1600 BC, the eruption of Thira devastated Aegean sites including Akrotiri. Some Minoan sites in eastern Crete may have been damaged by ensuing tsunamis.
The oldest recorded tsunami occurred in 479 BC. It destroyed a Persian army that was attacking the town of Potidaea in Greece.
As early as 426 BC, the Greek historian Thucydides inquired in his book History of the Peloponnesian War about the causes of tsunamis. He argued that such events could only be explained as a consequence of ocean earthquakes, and could see no other possible causes.

Prehistoric

Year	Location	Main Article	Primary Cause	Description
≈3,260 Ma	South Africa	S2 impact	Impact event	An astronomical object between wide traveling at struck the Earth east of what is now Johannesburg, South Africa, near South Africa's border with Eswatini, in what was then an Archean ocean that covered most of the planet, creating a crater about wide. The impact generated a megatsunami that probably extended to a depth of thousands of metres beneath the surface of the ocean and rose to the height of a skyscraper when it reached shorelines.
≈66 Ma	Yucatán Peninsula	Chicxulub event	Impact event	An asteroid in diameter struck the Earth, generating a megatsunami with an initial wave height of which struck coastlines in the Gulf of Mexico with waves tall and reached heights of up to in the North Atlantic and South Pacific. The impact also triggered giant landslides and slumps which produced additional megatsunamis of various sizes in the region, and seismic waves from it caused seiches of in height in an inland sea at Tanis, away.
≈5.33 Ma	Algeciras, Spain	Zanclean Flood	Reservoir-induced seismicity	At the end of or shortly after the Zanclean Flood, which rapidly filled the Mediterranean Basin with water from the Atlantic Ocean, a megatsunami with a height of nearly struck the coast of Spain near what is now Algeciras.
≈1.4 Ma	Molokai, Hawaii	East Molokai Volcano	Landslide	One-third of the East Molokai volcano collapsed into the Pacific Ocean, generating a tsunami with an estimated local height of. The wave traveled as far as California and Mexico.
≈220,000–170,000 BC	Tenerife, Canary Islands	Mount Teide	Eruption and landslide	A destructive series of eruptions caused a large collapse of part of the northern flank of the island and the central pre-Teide volcanic structure, causing a megatsunami in two phases, leaving deposits high on the north-west of the island.
≈103,000 BC	Hawaii		Submarine landslide	A tsunami at least in height deposited marine sediments at a modern-day elevation of – above sea level at the time the wave struck – on Lanai. The tsunami also deposited such sediments at an elevation of on Oahu, Molokai, Maui, and the island of Hawaii.
≈71,000 BC	Cape Verde Islands		Landslide	The eastern flank of the island of Fogo collapsed into the sea, generating a megatsunami. The wave struck Santiago, away, where it was at least tall and a had a run-up height of. The wave deposited giant boulders on Santiago at elevations of up to and as far as inland.
≈7,910–7,290 BC	Dor, Israel		Unknown	A megatsunami had a run-up of at least and traveled between inland from the ancient Eastern Mediterranean coast.
≈7000–6000 BC	Lisbon, Portugal		Unknown	A series of giant rocks and cobblestones have been found above mean sea level near Guincho Beach.
≈6370 BC	Eastern Mediterranean		Unknown	A landslide on the eastern slope of Mount Etna in Sicily reached the Mediterranean Sea and triggered a megatsunami in the Eastern Mediterranean with an initial wave height of along the eastern coast of Sicily, where it felled millions of trees. Models indicate it had heights of near Syracuse, Sicily; along the southern coast of Italy; along the southeastern coast of Sicily; at the northeastern tip of Sicily; at Malta; on the western coast of Greece; in southern Greece; along the coast of Libya; on the south coast of Crete; at Cyprus; and at the Neolithic village of Atlit Yam off the coast of Israel, prompting the village's permanent abandonment.
≈6225–6170 BC	Norwegian Sea	Storegga Slide	Landslide	The Storegga Slides, northwest of the coast of Møre in the Norwegian Sea, triggered a large tsunami in the North Atlantic Ocean. The collapse involved around of coastal shelf, and a total volume of of debris. Based on carbon dating of plant material in the sediment deposited by the tsunami, the latest incident occurred around 6225–6170 BC. In Scotland, traces of the tsunami have been found in sediments from Montrose Basin, the Firth of Forth, up to inland and above current normal tide levels.
≈5650 BC	Alluttoq Island, Greenland		Landslide	A large landslide into Sullorsuaq Strait generated a megatsunami which had a run-up height of.
≈5350 BC	Alluttoq Island, Greenland		Landslide	A large landslide into Sullorsuaq Strait generated a megatsunami which had a run-up height of.
5,500 BP	Northern Isles, Scotland	Garth tsunami	Unknown	The tsunami may have been responsible for contemporary mass burials.
≈1800 BC	Chile		Earthquake	A magnitude 9.5 earthquake generated tsunamis in height that struck of the coastline of the Atacama Desert. People fled the area and did not begin to return until around 800 BC; some pre-tsunami settlements were not reoccupied until between 1000 and 1500 AD.
≈1600 BC	Santorini, Greece	Minoan eruption	Volcanic eruption	The volcanic eruption in Santorini, Greece triggered tsunamis which caused damage to some Minoan sites in eastern Crete.
1171 BC	Baltic Sea		Unknown	A tsunami with wave heights of at least had run-up heights in Sweden of up to.
≈1100 BC	Lake Crescent, Washington, United States		Landslide	An earthquake generated the Sledgehammer Point Rockslide, which fell from Mount Storm King and entered waters at least deep, generating a megatsunami with an estimated maximum run-up height of.

Before 1000 AD

Year	Location	Main Article	Primary Cause	Description
479 BC	Potidaea, Greece	479 BC Potidaea earthquake		The oldest recorded tsunami in history. During the Persian siege of the maritime city of Potidaea, Greece, Herodotus reports how Persian attackers attempting to take advantage of an unusual retreat of the water were suddenly surprised by "a great tide, higher, as the locals say, than any one of many that had been before". Herodotus attributes the cause of the flash flood to Poseidon's wrath.
426 BC	Malian Gulf, Greece	426 BC Malian Gulf tsunami		In the summer of 426 BC, a tsunami struck the gulf between the northwestern tip of Euboea and Lamia. The Greek historian Thucydides described how the tsunami and a series of earthquakes affected the Peloponnesian War and, for the first time, associated earthquakes with waves in terms of cause and effect.
373 BC	Helike, Greece		Earthquake	An earthquake and a tsunami destroyed the prosperous Greek city of Helike, from the sea. The fate of the city, which remained permanently submerged, was often commented on by ancient writers and may have inspired contemporary Plato to create the myth of Atlantis.
60 BC	Portugal and Galicia		Earthquake	An earthquake of intensity IX and an estimated magnitude of 6.7 caused a tsunami on the coasts of Portugal and Galicia. Little else is known due to the paucity of records of Roman possession of the Iberian Peninsula.
79 AD	Gulf of Naples, Italy	Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD	Volcanic eruption	Pliny the Younger witnessed a smaller tsunami in the Bay of Naples during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 October 79 AD.
115 AD	Caesarea, Israel	115 Antioch earthquake	Earthquake	Underwater geoarchaeological excavations on the shallow shelf – around depth – at Caesarea, Israel, documented a tsunami hitting the ancient port. Talmudic sources record a tsunami on 13 December 115 AD that affected Caesarea and Yavneh. The tsunami was likely triggered by an earthquake that destroyed Antioch, and was generated somewhere along the Cyprian Arch fault system.
262 AD	Southwest Anatolia	262 Southwest Anatolia earthquake	Earthquake	Many cities were inundated by the sea, with cities in Roman Asia reporting the worst tsunami damage. In many places fissures appeared in the earth and filled with water; in others, towns were inundated by the sea.
365 AD	Alexandria, Southern and Eastern Mediterranean	365 Crete earthquake	Earthquake	On the morning of 21 July 365 AD, an earthquake triggered a tsunami more than high, devastating Alexandria and the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, killing thousands, and throwing ships nearly inland. This tsunami also devastated many large cities in what is now Libya and Tunisia. The anniversary of the disaster was still commemorated annually in the late sixth century in Alexandria as a "day of horror." Researchers at the University of Cambridge recently carbon dated corals off the coast of Crete that were raised and out of the water during the earthquake, indicating that the tsunami was generated by an earthquake on a pronounced fault in the Hellenic Trench. Scientists estimate that such an uplift is likely to only occur once every 5,000 years; however, the other segments of the fault could slip on a similar scale every 800 years or so.
551 AD	Lebanese coast	551 Beirut earthquake	Earthquake	The earthquake of 9 July 551 AD was one of the largest seismic events in and around Lebanon during the Byzantine period. The earthquake was associated with a tsunami along the Lebanese coast and a local landslide near Al-Batron. A large fire in Beirut also continued for almost two months.
563 AD	Lake Geneva, Switzerland and France	Tauredunum event	Underwater mudslide	Probably generated by a landslide that triggered a collapse of sediments at the mouth of the River Rhône, the tsunami traveled the length of Lake Geneva, reaching a height of in some places. The wave probably killed hundreds, or even thousands, of people.
684 AD	Nankai, Japan	684 Hakuhō earthquake, Nankai earthquake	Earthquake	The first recorded tsunami in Japan struck on 29 November 684 AD off the coast of the Kii, Shikoku, and Awaji region. The earthquake, estimated at a magnitude of 8.4, was followed by a large tsunami, but there are no estimates of the number of deaths. From then on, the Japanese would keep meticulous records of tsunamis.
701 AD	Tanba, Japan		Earthquake	On 12 May 701 AD, an earthquake and a tsunami measuring up to hit the coast of Tanba Province.
869 AD	Sanriku, Japan	869 Jōgan earthquake	Earthquake	The Sanriku region was hit by a large tsunami on 13 July 869 AD, causing floods to spread inland from the coast. Tagajō was destroyed, with an estimated 1,000 casualties.
887 AD	Nankai, Japan	887 Ninna Nankai earthquake	Earthquake	On 26 August 887 AD, there was a strong commotion in the Kyoto region, causing great destruction. A tsunami inundated the coastal region and some people died. The coast of Settsu Province suffered especially, and the tsunami was also observed on the coast of the Sea of Hyūga.