260 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1947 



and Richter, 1941, pp. 84r-85). The great majority of the tsunamis 

 reaching Hawaii originate in the highly seismic border zone of the 

 Pacific. Of the 22 tsunamis from known sources listed in the table, 5 

 came from near South America, 1 from near Central America, 1 from 

 near California, 3 from near Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, 5 from 

 near Kamchatka, 3 from the Japanese area, and 1 from near the 

 Solomon Islands. Of the five severe tsunamis, three originated near 

 the coast of South America and one in the Aleutian area, and one 

 was of local origin. One tsunami of moderate intensity came from 

 near Kamchatka, and another probably from South America. 



Table 1. — Hawaiian tsunamis 



GENERAL FEATURES OF THE APRIL 1946 TSUNAMI : ORIGIN AND 

 NATURE OF THE WAVES 



The tsunami of April 1, 1946, was caused by a movement of the sea 

 bottom on the northern slope of the Aleutian Deep, south of Unimak 

 Island. The same crustal movement gave rise to a violent earthquake, 

 recorded on seismographs all over the world. In Hawaii it was re- 

 corded on the instrument of the United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey located on the campus of the University of Hawaii in Hono- 

 lulu, and on those of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at Kilauea 

 on Hawaii. The epicenter of the earthquake has been located by the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey at latitude 53.5° N. and longitude 163° 

 W., and the time established as 1*^59'° a. m. Hawaiian time (12*'29™ 

 Greenwich time) (Bodle, 1946, p. 464). It may be assumed that the 

 tsunami originated at the same place and time as the earthquake. The 



