Historic tsunami

This article lists notable historical tsunamis, which are sorted by the date and location that the tsunami 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 BCE, a tsunami caused by the eruption of Thira destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete and related cultures in the Cyclades, as well as in areas on the Greek mainland facing the eruption, such as the Argolid.

The oldest recorded tsunami occurred in 479 BCE. It destroyed a Persian army that was attacking the town of Potidaea in Greece.

As early as 426 BCE, the Greek historian Thucydides inquired in his book History of the Peloponnesian War (3.89.1–6) 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.

This tsunami devastated many large cities in what is now Libya and Tunisia, as well as Alexandria in Egypt. The anniversary of the disaster was still commemorated annually at the end of the 6th century in Alexandria as a "day of horror."

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