Famous Tsunami Events

373 BC - Destroyed the Greek city of Helike, located 2km away from the sea.  May have inspired the myth of the sunken city Atlantis.

365 AD - Tsunami destroys Alexandria.  Thousands of people died, and ships were thrown two miles inland.

1293 AD - Kamakura, Japan.  23,000 people died as a result of damage from a Tsunami.

1607 AD - Great Britain.  More than 200 square miles flooded and 2,000 people drowned.

1755 AD - Lisbon, Portugal.  More than 1,000 people drown from a 50 foot Tsunami.  The combination of the earthquake, Tsunami and fires killed more than 60,000 people, making it the deadliest natural disaster in ancient history.

1868 AD - Arica, Chile.  An earthquake of the coast of Chile caused a Tsunami that killed an estimated 25,000 thousand people in Africa.

April 1, 1946 - Aleutian Islands.  Known as the April Fools Day Tsunami.  This Tsunami resulted in the creation of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWC).

March 27th, 1964 - Alaska.  Waves reached a height of 100 feet and killed people as far away as California.

December 26th, 2004 - Indian Ocean.  A series of waves struck land ranging from Indonesia to Kenya.  At its peak, the waves reached 108 feet, and killed roughly 300,000 people.

March 11th, 2011 - Sendai, Japan.  An 9.0 earthquake caused a Tsunami reaching 33 feet high, killing more than 12,000 people.  Total damage is estimated a 300 billion dollars.