It's "Tsunami Awareness Week,'' and don't think it can't happen on the East Coast.
It has, according to a National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program handbook.
A tsunami in the Japan Sea in 1983 (photo credit: International Tsunami Information Centre)
Based on lessons learned from the destructive 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, even areas rarely affected by tsunamis can sustain tremendous damage and casualties if people who live and/or travel there are not prepared, the handbook says.
In 1929, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake triggered a large undersea landslide that spawned a tsunami, according to the handbook.
The tsunami reached about 23 feet high in Newfoundland and killed 22 people, the handbook says.
Recent studies show that this type of tsunami has likely happened several times in the past 10,000 years, according to the handbook.
In 1867, a tsunami up to 26 feet high hit the U.S. Virgin Islands, killing 30 people, the handbook says.
And more than 140 people were killed in western Puerto Rico by a 20-foot tsunami in 1918, the handbook says.
In 1755, an earthquake generated a tsunami up to about 100 feet high in Portugal. The tsunami was recorded widely around the Atlantic and caused damage at several locations, including Canada and the Caribbean, according to the handbook.
For an Atlantic tsunami warning exercise, a forecast model was used to simulate the tsunami generated by a hypothetical magnitude 7.5 earthquake 90 miles south of Nantucket, Mass., and an underwater slide off the continental slope, according to the handbook.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration runs a tsunami warning system for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, eastern Canada, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through its West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, according to the handbook.
The National Weather Service Mount Holly office has more information on East Coast and other tsunamis.