Considering California gets many earthquakes, I’m confused why a tsunami hasn’t hit the US west coast.
In: Earth Science
That earthquakes are common in california may well be part of why the word “tsunami” comes from Japanese. Tsunami need a certain amount of space from the earthquakes in order to build up a significant amount of height, I believe.
Also, 28 tsunami (waves with a runup [height above sea level] above 1 meter) have hit the west coast of the US since 1812, according to the official US Geological Survey website, so it’s not unheard of, just not common:
[https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/could-a-large-tsunami-happen-united-states?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/could-a-large-tsunami-happen-united-states?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products)
It’s hard to tell whether they consider Hawai’i or Alaska to be “west coast”, which would inflate the numbers, but Cali has definitely been hit by tsunami before.
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