Historically, how often and where do tsunamis occur?
Tsunamis are disasters that can be generated in all of the world’s oceans, inland seas, and in any large body of water. Each region of the world appears to have its own cycle of frequency and pattern in generating tsunamis that range in size from small to the large and highly destructive events. Most tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean (85%) and its marginal seas. The reason is that the Pacific covers more than one-third of the earth’s surface and is surrounded by a series of mountain chains, deep-ocean trenches and island arcs called the “ring of fire” – where most earthquakes occur (off the coasts of Kamchatka, Japan, the Kuril Islands, Alaska and South America). It is in the ring of fire where the main tectonic plates forming the floor of the Pacific collide against themselves or against the continental plates that surround the ocean basin. Many tsunamis have also been generated in the seas which border the Pacific Ocean. Tsunamis are generated, by shallow earthquakes all around the
