Tsunamis have been a part of our Northwest Oceanographic history. Downslope movement of material, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions can all create large sea waves along the Pacific Northwest Coast. The evidence in coastal record in bays, marshes, estuaries, rivers and historical records point to a repeated occurrence of large ocean waves along the Pacific Northwest Coast. Corings of sediment, tsunami sands buried peats, tree ring data, buried forests, ancient landslides, turbidites, and Native American archeological sites show a record of coseismic action across the Pacific Northwest Coast.

This paper will be a discussion of the oceanographic evidence and recorded history of the Pacific Northwest Tsunamis. Included are pictures of evidence, and data relating to generational causes of events. This information is particularly disconcerting to coastal and regional residents of the Pacific Northwest as the generation of major Tsunamis relates to subduction and crustal zone earthquakes above an M3 scale of 7 and 9.