The Orphan Tsunami of 1700: Japanese Clues to a Parent Earthquake in North America

About this book

The outside world scarcely knew of northwestern North America in the year 1700. The Pacific coast from southcentral Alaska to Oregons Cape Blanco was uncharted until the Spanish and English explorations of the 1770s. Yet when tectonic plates suddenly shifted there in 1700 a train of ocean waves -- a tsunami -- sped across the Pacific Ocean. When the waves came ashore in Japan they flooded fields and washed away houses. Samurai merchants and villagers recorded the mysterious event but they observed no storm and felt no parent earthquake. In Japan this tsunami was an orphan. The Orphan Tsunami of 1700 tells this transpacific detective story by presenting its primary sources Japanese documents and North American sediments and tree rings. They tell of a catastrophe a century before Lewis and Clarks expedition that now guides preparations for future earthquakes and tsunamis in the North Pacific. A rich array of graphic detail and narrative explains the creation action and lasting effects of earthquakes and tsunamis. Hear Brian Atwater on NPR with Renee Montagne http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId4629401