Megatsunamis

Thirty megatsunamis, extreme tsunamis with waves of at least 40 meters, have been documented in the geological history of the planet. This is its terrifying description. In the last 150 years, tsunamis have caused more than 500,000 deaths and the destruction of vast coastal areas around the world, with immense economic losses. The most catastrophic occurred in 2004 after a tremendous undersea earthquake in Indonesia that affected all the coasts of the Indian Ocean and killed more than 230,000 people, thus becoming the deadliest tsunami in history. Megatsunamis, with large waves exceeding 40 meters in height, are the most extreme processes and are caused by large landslides and subaerial rockfalls that enter the sea or a lake, submarine landslides, large volcanic explosions or the fall of large asteroids into the ocean. As exceptional phenomena in nature, they have very long return periods in relation to the human scale. Throughout history, around thirty megatsunamis have been documented through historical and geological evidence, which are compiled and described in these pages.