22 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, January, 1947 
of several minutes to an hour as contrasted 
with several seconds for ordinary storm waves 
caused by wind, a wave length of scores of 
miles as contrasted with less than 500 feet 
for wind waves, and a speed of hundreds of 
miles an hour as contrasted with less than 60 
miles an hour for wind waves. Tsunamis 
are also sometimes termed "seismic sea 
waves,” and are popularly known as "tidal 
waves.” The latter term is patently undesir¬ 
able, as the waves have no connection what¬ 
ever with the tides. "Tsunami” is used herein 
in preference to "seismic sea wave” because 
of its greater brevity, and because the etymo¬ 
logical correctness of the term "seismic sea 
wave” appears open to question. 3 
HISTORY OF TSUNAMIS IN HAWAII 
Tsunamis probably reach Hawaiian shores 
on an average of more than one a year. Most 
of these are small, however, and generally 
escape notice except when their record is 
recognized on tide gages. Earlier tsunamis 
in Hawaii have been discussed by Jaggar 
(1931: 1-3) and Powers (1946: 3). The 
accompanying table lists all the tsunamis 
noticed on Hawaiian shores, in the period of 
written history, of which record could be 
found, together with their sources if known. 
A total of 27 are listed, or an average of one 
every 4.7 years since 1819. Most of them, 
however, did little damage. During the same 
interval there are listed five severe tsunamis 
which caused extensive damage, an average 
of one every 25.6 years. 
Other violent waves have been termed 
"tidal waves” in the newspapers, but were 
more probably storm waves. Such were the 
wave which hit Maliko, Maui, on January 
28, 1895, and those which struck Kauma- 
3 The adjective "seismic” is derived from the 
Greek root seismos, meaning earthquake, and is 
defined as pertaining to, produced by, or charac¬ 
teristic of an earthquake. The waves in question 
are not, however, characteristic of most earth¬ 
quakes, even those of submarine origin, and are 
not produced by earthquakes. 
lapau on Lanai, and Nawiliwili on Kauai, on 
May 30, 1924. 
It will be noted that only two of the 27 
tsunamis listed in the table were of local 
origin. With the exception of the numerous 
volcanic earthquakes on the island of Ha¬ 
waii, which seldom cause tsunamis, the 
Hawaiian region is only moderately active 
seismically (Gutenberg and Richter, 1941: 
84-85). 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, five came from near South Amer¬ 
ica, one from near Central America, one 
from near California, three from near Alaska 
and the Aleutian Islands, five from near 
Kamchatka, three from the Japanese area, 
and one from near the Solomon Islands. Of 
the five severe tsunamis, three originated 
TABLE 1 
Hawaiian Tsunamis 
DATE 
SOURCE 
DAMAGE 
IN HAWAII 
AVERAGE 
SPEED OF 
WAVES 
1819 Apr. 12 
nearest coast 
Unknown 
Unknown 
mi. per hr. 
1837 Nov. 7 
South America 
Severe 
— 
1841 May 17 
Kamchatka 
Small 
— 
1868 Apr. 2 
Hawaii 
Severe 
— 
1868 Aug. 13 
South America 
Severe 
— 
1869 July 25 
South Amer¬ 
Moderate 
— 
1872 Aug. 23 
ica (?) 
Hawaii 
Small 
1877 May 10 
South America 
Severe 
— 
1883 Aug. 26 
East Indies 
Small 
— 
1896 June 15 
Japan 
None 
478 
1901 Aug. 9 
Japan (?) 
None 
— 
1906 Jan. 31 
Unknown 
None 
—— 
1906 Aug. 16 
South America 
Small 
— 
1918 Sept. 7 
Kamchatka 
Small 
456 
1919 Apr. 30 
Unknown 
None 
— 
1922 Nov. 11 
(distant) 
South America 
None 
450 
1923 Feb. 3 
Kamchatka 
Moderate 
432 
1923 Apr. 13 
Kamchatka 
None 
438 
1927 Nov. 4 
California 
None 
462 
1927 Dec. 28 
Kamchatka 
None 
438 
1928 June 16 
Mexico 
None 
462 
1929 Mar. 6 
Aleutian Is. 
None 
492 
1931 Oct. 3 
Solomon Is. 
None 
447 
1933 Mar. 2 
Japan 
Small 
477 
1938 Nov. 10 
Alaska 
None 
496 
1944 Dec. 7 
Japan 
None 
425 
1946 Apr. 1 
Aleutian Is. 
Severe | 
490 
