skip navigation link

Maps from Tsunami Sources

Map of estimated travel times for the 1964 Alaska tsunami



Tsunami Travel Time Maps

NGDC, as the World Data Center for Geophysics and Marine Geology (including Tsunamis), and the UNESCO-IOC International Tsunami Information Center, collaborated to provide tsunami travel time maps for historical maps using software from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Maps were generated using Tsunami Travel Times (TTT) software developed by Paul Wessel, Geoware. TTT software calculates first-arrival travel times on a grid for a tsunami generated at a given earthquake epicenter.

Two types of tsunami travel time maps have been created:

  1. Selected historic tsunami events and hypothetical earthquakes in the Indian and Pacific Oceans
  2. Anywhere in an ocean basin to selected coastal locations

NOTE: These maps do not provide information on the height or the strength of the wave, only the arrival times.

WDC logo        IOC logo        ITIC logo


Maps to Coastal Locations

Map of estimated travel times from a tsunami source anywhere in the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco, California