Tsunamis with waves of 30 metres or more since 1950

Map of 17 locations · Worldwide

Run-ups at this scale come from two very different sources: ocean-crossing earthquakes, and mountainsides, glaciers or volcanic flanks collapsing into confined fjords, lakes and reservoirs, where the water has nowhere to go. All of these are historical events, documented in field surveys, scientific papers and contemporary press reports. The coordinates mark where the water was displaced, not the shore the wave reached.

Places in this collection

  • 2024 Pedersen Lagoon landslide tsunami — At approximately 5:00 a.m. on 7 August 2024 a landslide-triggered wave washed over portions of Pedersen Lagoon, near Aialik Bay on the coas…
  • 2023 Dickson Fjord landslide and tsunami — A landslide on 16 September 2023 entered Dickson Fjord, in a very remote part of eastern Greenland. The water set in motion within the conf…
  • 2018 Sunda Strait tsunami — At about 21:00 local time on 22 December 2018 an undersea landslide, caused by volcanic activity on Anak Krakatau between Java and Sumatra,…
  • 2017 Karrat Fjord landslide and tsunami — On the evening of 17 June 2017 a landslide mobilising 35 to 58 million cubic metres of material entered Karrat Isfjord on the west coast of…
  • 2015 Taan Fjord landslide and tsunami — On 17 October 2015 a rain-soaked mountainside slid into Taan Fiord, an arm of Icy Bay in southeast Alaska, and the displaced water ran more…
  • 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami — The earthquake struck at 14:46 local time on 11 March 2011 about 130 km off the coast of the Tōhoku district of northeastern Honshū, east o…
  • 2007 Aysén Fjord earthquake — The earthquake of 21 April 2007 at Aisén in southern Chile, near 45.5 degrees south, triggered rock slope failures along the walls of the f…
  • 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami — A great earthquake struck beneath the Indian Ocean on the morning of 26 December 2004, about 250 km southwest of Banda Aceh and some 160 mi…
  • 2000 Paatuut landslide — A large landslide came down at Paatuut, facing the Vaigat Strait on the west coast of Greenland, on 21 November 2000. Roughly 30 million cu…
  • 1996 Karymskoye caldera lake eruption — A sublacustrine, Surtseyan-type eruption in the caldera lake on 2 and 3 January 1996 included a series of underwater explosions. The lake i…
  • 1993 Okushiri earthquake — A large earthquake struck off southwest Hokkaido at 10:17 p.m. on 12 July 1993, and the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warnin…
  • 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption — The eruption of 18 May 1980 in Washington state was accompanied by a landslide that displaced water and raised a wave. Conservative figures…
  • 1965 Yate volcano landslide — Unusually heavy summer rains loosened a non-eruptive mass of ice and rock on Yate, a large glaciated stratovolcano in the southern Andes of…
  • 1964 Great Alaska earthquake — On the afternoon of 27 March 1964 local time a fault between the Pacific and North American plates ruptured beneath the seafloor of Prince…
  • 1963 Vajont Dam disaster — At 10:39 pm on 9 October 1963 a part of the mountain slid from the top of Monte Toc into the reservoir behind the newly built dam in the Va…
  • 1958 Lituya Bay earthquake and megatsunami — An earthquake on the Fairweather Fault, which runs west of Juneau along the Alaska Panhandle, struck at around 10:15 p.m. on 9 July 1958 ne…
  • 1957 Andreanof Islands earthquake — The rupture occurred at 04:22 local time on 9 March south of the Andreanof Islands group, part of the Aleutian Islands arc, and set off a P…

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