document_title: Mack the Knife

question_text: who sings mack the knife with frank sinatra

text: Mack the Knife

text: The Threepenny Opera[edit]

text: A Moritat is a medieval version of the murder ballad performed by strolling minstrels. In The Threepenny Opera, the Moritat singer with his street organ introduces and closes the drama with the tale of the deadly Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife, a character based on the dashing highwayman Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (who was in turn based on the historical thief Jack Sheppard). The Brecht-Weill version of the character was far more cruel and sinister, and has been transformed into a modern anti-hero.

text: The play opens with the Moritat singer comparing Macheath (unfavorably) with a shark, and then telling tales of his robberies, murders, rapes, and arson.

text: The song was a last-minute addition, inserted just before its premiere in 1928, because Harald Paulsen, the actor who played Macheath, demanded that Brecht and Weill add another number that would more effectively introduce his character.[1] However, Weill and Brecht decided the song should not be sung by Macheath himself, opting instead to write the song for a street singer in keeping with the Moritat tradition. At the premiere, the song was sung by Kurt Gerron, who played Police Chief Brown. Weill also intended the Moritat to be accompanied by a barrel organ, which was to be played by the singer.[2] At the premiere, though, the barrel organ failed, and the pit orchestra (a jazz band) had to quickly provide the accompaniment for the street singer.[3]

text:
Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne,
Und die trägt er im Gesicht.
Und Macheath, der hat ein Messer,
Doch das Messer sieht man nicht.

And the shark, it has teeth,
And it wears them in the face.
And Macheath, he has a knife,
But the knife can't be seen.

text: French translation[edit]

text: The song was translated into French as "La complainte de Mackie" by André Mauprey and Ninon Steinhoff and popularized by Catherine Sauvage.[4]

text: 1954 Blitzstein translation[edit]

text:
"A Theme from The Threepenny Opera (Mack the Knife)"

Single by Louis Armstrong

B-side
"Back O' Town Blues"

Released
1956

Format
7"

Recorded
New York City
28 September 1955[5]

Genre
Jazz

Length
3:25

Label
Columbia 40587
Coronet KS-349 (pictured, reached Nº1 in Australia)[citation needed]

Songwriter(s)
Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht
English lyrics Marc Blitzstein, arr. Turk Murphy

text: The song was first introduced to American audiences in 1933 in the first English-language production of The Threepenny Opera. The English lyrics were by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky.[6] That production, however, was not successful, closing after a run of only ten days. In the best known English translation, from the Marc Blitzstein 1954 version of The Threepenny Opera, which played Off-Broadway for over six years,[7] the words are:

text:
Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear,
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack-knife has Macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight.

text: Blitzstein's translation provides the basis for most of the popular versions heard today, including those by Louis Armstrong (1956) and Bobby Darin (1959; Darin's lyrics differ slightly), and most subsequent swing versions. Weill's widow, Lotte Lenya, the star of both the original 1928 German production and the 1954 Blitzstein Broadway version, was present in the studio during Armstrong's recording. He spontaneously added her name to the lyrics ("Look out, Miss Lotte Lenya"), which already named several of Macheath's female victims. The Armstrong version was later used by Bobby Darin.

text: The rarely heard final verse—not included in the original play, but added by Brecht for the 1931 movie—expresses the theme and compares the glittering world of the rich and powerful with the dark world of the poor:

text:
Denn die einen sind im Dunkeln
Und die andern sind im Licht
Und man siehet die im Lichte
Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht.

There are some who are in darkness
And the others are in light
And you see the ones in brightness
Those in darkness drop from sight.

text: 1976 Manheim–Willett extension ("Moritat")[edit]

text: In 1976, a brand-new interpretation of "Mack the Knife" by Ralph Manheim and John Willett opened on Broadway, later made into a movie version starring Raúl Juliá as Mackie. This version, simply known as "Moritat", is an extension of the story with completely new lyrics that expound upon the tales of Macheath's trail of activity. Here is an excerpt:

text:
See the shark with teeth like razors
All can read his open face
And Macheath has got a knife, but
Not in such an obvious place.

text: This version was performed by Lyle Lovett on the soundtrack of the 1994 film Quiz Show. Darin's and Lovett's versions play over the opening and closing credits, respectively. This interpretation was later also recorded by Sting and Nick Cave in the later part of the 1990s.

text: 1994 translation[edit]

text: A much darker translation by Robert David MacDonald and Jeremy Sams into English was used for the 1994 Donmar Warehouse theatrical production in London. The new translation attempted to recapture the original tone of the song:

text:
Though the shark's teeth may be lethal
Still you see them white and red
But you won't see Mackie's flick knife
Cause he slashed you and you're dead.

text: Popular song[edit]

text:
"Mack the Knife"

Single by Bobby Darin

from the album That's All

B-side
"Was There a Call for Me"

Released
August 1959

Format
7"

Recorded
December 19, 1958 at Fulton Studios, New York City

Genre
Traditional pop, jazz

Length
3:11 (Album version)
3:04 (Single version)

Label
Atco (U.S.)
London (UK)

Songwriter(s)
Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht
Marc Blitzstein, Turk Murphy (English version)

Bobby Darin singles chronology

"Dream Lover"
(1959)
"Mack the Knife"
(1959)
"Beyond the Sea"
(1960)

"Dream Lover"
(1959)
"Mack the Knife"
(1959)
"Beyond the Sea"
(1960)

text: "Mack the Knife" was introduced to the United States hit parade by Louis Armstrong in 1956, but the song is most closely associated with Bobby Darin, who recorded his version at Fulton Studios on West 40th Street, New York City, on December 19, 1958 (with Tom Dowd engineering the recording). Even though Darin was reluctant to release the song as a single,[8] in 1959 it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Black Singles chart, and earned him a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Dick Clark had advised Darin not to record the song because of the perception that, having come from an opera, it would not appeal to the rock and roll audience. In subsequent years, Clark recounted the story with good humor. Frank Sinatra, who recorded the song with Quincy Jones on his L.A. Is My Lady album, called Darin's the "definitive" version. Billboard ranked this version as the No. 2 song for 1959. Darin's version was No. 3 on Billboard's All Time Top 100.[9] In 2003, the Darin version was ranked #251 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. On BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, pop mogul Simon Cowell named "Mack the Knife" the best song ever written. Darin's version of the song was featured in the movies Quiz Show and What Women Want. Both Armstrong and Darin's versions were inducted by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry in 2016.[10]

text: Brecht's original German language version was appropriated for a series of humorous and surreal blackout skits by television pioneer Ernie Kovacs, showing, between skits, the soundtrack displayed on an oscilloscope.[11]

text: Ella Fitzgerald made a famous live recording in 1960 (released on Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife) in which, after forgetting the lyrics after the first verse, she improvised new lyrics in a performance that earned her a Grammy Award. Robbie Williams also recorded the song on his 2001 album Swing When You're Winning, and performed it as the first song after the arrival of the Queen during the Diamond Jubilee Concert in 2012, referencing Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

text: Other notable versions include performances by Dave Van Ronk, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Tony Bennett, Marianne Faithfull, Nick Cave, Brian Setzer, Kevin Spacey, Westlife, and Michael Bublé. Swiss band The Young Gods radically reworked the song in industrial style, while jazz legend Sonny Rollins recorded an instrumental version entitled simply "Moritat" in 1956. A 1959 instrumental performance by Bill Haley & His Comets was the final song the group recorded for Decca Records. Deana Martin recorded "Mack the Knife" on her second studio album, Volare, released in 2009 by Big Fish Records.

text: Tito Puente also recorded an instrumental version. Salsa musician Rubén Blades recorded an homage entitled "Pedro Navaja".[12] Brazilian composer Chico Buarque, in his loose adaptation of Threepenny Opera (Ópera do Malandro), made two versions called "O Malandro" and "O Malandro № 2", with lyrics in Portuguese. Liberace regularly performed a variant in which he played the song successively in five styles: as originally written, in the style of a Johann Strauss waltz, as a music box, in a bossa nova rhythm, and in what Liberace considered a popular American style.

text: The chorus to the song "Haifisch" ("Shark") by Rammstein is inspired by "Mack the Knife".

text: Parodies[edit]

text: The song has been parodied numerous times. Steve Martin parodied "Mack the Knife" in his opening monologue to the premiere of Saturday Night Live's third season in 1977. In the mid-1980s, McDonald's introduced Mac Tonight, a character whose signature song was based on "Mack the Knife". There was a skit on The Muppet Show, where the characters play upon the sinister nature of the lyrics.[13] American political parodists the Capitol Steps used the tune for their song "Pack the Knife" on their 2002 album When Bush Comes to Shove.


document_title: List of historical tsunamis

question_text: when was the last time there was a tsunami in hawaii

root

text: List of historical tsunamis

text: Prehistoric[edit]

text:
Date
Location
Main Article
Primary Cause
Description

≈7000–6000 BCE
Lisbon, Portugal

Unknown
A series of giant boulders and cobbles have been found 14 m above mean sea level near Guincho Beach.[3]

≈6225–6170 BCE
Norwegian Sea
Storegga Slide
Landslide
The Storegga Slide(s) occurred 100 km north-west of the Møre coast in the Norwegian Sea, causing a very large tsunami in the North Atlantic Ocean. This collapse involved an estimated 290 km length of coastal shelf, and a total volume of 3,500 km3 of debris.[4] Based on carbon dating of plant material recovered from sediment deposited by the tsunami, the latest incident occurred around 6225–6170 BCE.[5][6] In Scotland, traces of the tsunami have been found in deposited sediment discovered in Montrose Basin, the Firth of Forth, up to 80 km inland and 4 metres above current normal tide levels.

≈1600 BCE
Santorini, Greece
Minoan eruption
Volcanic eruption
The volcanic eruption on Santorini, Greece is assumed to have caused severe damage to cities around it, most notably the Minoan civilization on Crete. A tsunami is assumed to be the factor that caused the most damage.

tag: table

text: Before 1001 CE[edit]

text:
Date
Location
Main Article
Primary Cause
Description

479 BCE
Potidaea, Greece
479 BCE Potidaea tsunami

The earliest recorded tsunami in history.[1] During the Persian siege of the sea town Potidaea, Greece, the Greek historian Herodotus reports how the Persian attackers who tried to exploit an unusual retreat of the water were suddenly surprised by "a great flood-tide, higher, as the people of the place say, than any one of the many that had been before". Herodotus attributes the cause of the sudden flood to the wrath of Poseidon.[7]

426 BCE
Malian Gulf, Greece
426 BC Malian Gulf tsunami

In the summer of 426 BCE, a tsunami hit the gulf between the northwest tip of Euboea and Lamia.[8] The Greek historian Thucydides (3.89.1–6) described how the tsunami and a series of earthquakes affected the raging Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) and, for the first time in the history of natural science, associated quakes with waves in terms of cause and effect.[9]

373 BCE
Helike, Greece

Earthquake
An earthquake and a tsunami destroyed the prosperous Greek city of Helike, 2 km away from the sea. The fate of the city, which remained permanently submerged, was often commented upon by ancient writers[10] and may have inspired the contemporary Plato to the myth of Atlantis.

60 BCE
Portugal and Galicia

Earthquake
An earthquake of intensity IX and an estimated magnitude of 6.7 caused a tsunami along the coasts of Portugal and Galicia.[11] Little more is known due to the scarcity of records from the Roman possession of the Iberian Peninsula.

79 CE
Gulf of Naples, Italy
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79
Volcanic eruption
A smaller tsunami was witnessed in the Bay of Naples by Pliny the Younger during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.[12]

115 CE
Caesarea, Israel

Earthquake (?)
Underwater geoarchaeological excavations on the shallow shelf (∼10 m depth) at Caesarea, Israel, have documented a tsunami that struck the ancient harbor at Caesarea. Talmudic sources record a tsunami that struck on 13 December A.D. 115, impacting Caesarea and Yavne. The tsunami was probably triggered by an earthquake that destroyed Antioch, and was generated somewhere on the Cyprian Arc fault system.[13]

262 CE
Southwest Anatolia (Turkey)
262 Southwest Anatolia earthquake
Earthquake
Many cities were flooded by the sea, with the cities of Roman Asia reporting the worst tsunami damage. In many places, fissures appeared in the earth and filled with water; in others, towns were overwhelmed by the sea.[14][15][16]

365 CE
Alexandria, Southern and Eastern Mediterranean
365 Crete earthquake
Earthquake
On the morning of 21 July 365 AD, a large earthquake caused a tsunami more than 100 feet (30 m) high, devastating Alexandria and the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, killing many thousands, and hurling ships nearly two miles inland.[17][18]
This tsunami devastated many large cities in what is now Libya and Tunisia, as well as Alexandria in Egypt. The anniversary of the disaster was still commemorated annually at the end of the 6th century in Alexandria as a "day of horror."[19]
Researchers at the University of Cambridge recently carbon dated corals on the coast of Crete which were lifted 10 metres and clear of the water during the earthquake. This indicates that the tsunami was generated by an earthquake in a steep fault in the Hellenic trench near Crete. Scientists estimate that such an uplift is only likely to occur once in 5,000 years; however, the other segments of the fault could slip on a similar scale every 800 years or so.[20]

551 CE
Lebanese Coast
551 Beirut earthquake
Earthquake
The 9 July 551 CE earthquake was one of the largest seismic events in and around Lebanon during the Byzantine period. It destroyed several Lebanese coastal cities, including Beirut. The earthquake was associated with a tsunami along the Lebanese coast and a local landslide near Al-Batron. A large fire in Beirut also continued for almost two months.[21]

684 CE
Nankai, Japan
684 Hakuhō Nankai earthquake
Earthquake
The first recorded tsunami in Japan, it hit on November 29, 684 on the shore of the Kii, Shikoku, and Awaji region. The earthquake, estimated at magnitude 8.4,[11] was followed by a huge tsunami, but no estimates exist for the number of deaths.[22]

869 CE
Sanriku, Japan
869 Jogan Sanriku earthquake
Earthquake
The Sanriku region was struck by a major tsunami that caused flooding extending 4 km inland from the coast. The town of Tagajō was destroyed, with an estimated 1,000 casualties.

887 CE
Nankai, Japan
887 Ninna Nankai earthquake
Earthquake
On August 26 of the Ninna era, there was a strong shock in the Kyoto region, causing great destruction. A tsunami flooded the coastal region, and some people died. The coast of Settsu Province (Osaka Prefecture) suffered especially heavily, and the tsunami was also observed on the coast of the Sea of Hyūga (Miyazaki Prefecture).[11]

text: 1000–1700 CE[edit]

text:
Date
Location
Main Article
Primary Cause
Description

1293
Kamakura, Japan
1293 Kamakura earthquake
Earthquake
A magnitude 7.1 quake and tsunami hit Kamakura, then Japan's de facto capital, killing 23,000 after resulting fires.

1303
Eastern Mediterranean
1303 Crete earthquake
Earthquake
A team from Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, found evidence of five tsunamis that hit Greece over the past 2000 years. "Most were small and local, but in 1303 a larger one hit Crete, Rhodes, Alexandria and Acre in Israel."[23]

1361
Nankai, Japan
1361 Shōhei Nankai earthquake
Earthquake
On 3 August 1361, during the Shōhei era, an 8.4 quake hit Nankaidō, followed by a tsunami. A total of 660 deaths were reported. The earthquake shook Awa, Settsu, Kii, Yamato and Awaji Provinces (Tokushima, Osaka, Wakayama and Nara Prefectures and Awaji Island). A tsunami was observed on the coast of Awa and Tosa Provinces (Tokushima and Kōchi Prefectures), in Kii Strait and in Osaka Bay. The Hot spring of Yunomine, Kii (Tanabe, Wakayama) stopped. The port of Yuki, Awa (Minami, Tokushima) was completely destroyed by the tsunami, and more than 1,700 houses were washed away.

1498
Nankai, Japan
1498 Nankai earthquake
Earthquake
On September 20, 1498, during the Meiō era, a 7.5 earthquake and tsunami hit. The ports in Kii Province (Wakayama Prefecture) damaged by a tsunami several meters high. 30–40 thousand deaths estimated.[11][24] The building around the great Buddha of Kamakura (altitude 7m) was swept away by the tsunami.[25]

1531
Lisbon, Portugal
1531 Lisbon earthquake
Earthquake
The earthquake of 26 January was accompanied by a tsunami in the Tagus River that destroyed ships in Lisbon harbour

1541
Nueva Cadiz, Venezuela

Earthquake
In 1528, Cristóbal Guerra founded Nueva Cádiz on the island of Cubagua, the first Spanish settlement in Venezuela. Nueva Cádiz, which reached a population between 1000 and 1500, was possibly destroyed in an earthquake followed by tsunami in 1541—it also could have been a major hurricane.[26] The ruins were declared a National Monument of Venezuela in 1979.

1605
Nankai, Japan
1605 Nankai earthquake
Earthquake
On February 3, 1605, in the Keichō era, a magnitude 8.1 quake and tsunami hit Japan. An enormous tsunami with a maximum known height of 30 m was observed on the coast from the Bōsō Peninsula to the eastern part of Kyushu Island. The eastern part of the Bōsō Peninsula, Edo Bay (Tokyo Bay), Sagami and Tōtōmi Provinces (Kanagawa and Shizuoka Prefectures), and the southeastern coast of Tosa Province (Kōchi Prefecture) suffered particularly heavily.[11] 700 houses (41%) in Hiro, Kii (Hirogawa, Wakayama) were washed away, and 3,600 people drowned in the area of Shishikui, Awa (Kaiyō, Tokushima). Wave heights reached 5–6 meters at Kannoura, Tosa (Tōyō, Kōchi) and 8–10 m at Sakihama, Tosa (Muroto, Kōchi). 350 drowned at Kannoura and 60 at Sakihama. In total more than 5,000 drowned.

1607
Bristol Channel, Great Britain
Bristol Channel floods, 1607
Disputed
On 30 January 1607, at least 2,000 drowned, while houses and villages were swept away and an area estimated at 200 square miles (520 km2) was inundated. Until the 1990s, it was undisputed that flooding was caused by a storm surge aggravated by other factors, but recent research indicates a tsunami.[27] The probable cause is postulated as a submarine earthquake off the Irish coast.

1693
Sicily
1693 Sicily earthquake
Earthquake
A large foreshock on January 9 was followed on January 11 by the most powerful earthquake in Italian history. The ensuing tsunami devastated the Ionian Sea coast and the Straits of Messina. It remains unclear whether the tsunami was directly caused by the earthquake or by a large underwater landslide triggered by the event.

text:
Date
Location
Main Article
Primary Cause
Description

1700
Pacific Northwest, U.S. and Canada
1700 Cascadia earthquake
Earthquake
On 26 January 1700, the Cascadia earthquake, estimated Mw 9, ruptured the Cascadia subduction zone (C SZ) from offshore Vancouver Island to northern California, and caused a massive tsunami recorded in Japan and by the oral traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest This wave had caught the Japanese completely off-guard, not knowing its origin, and was explained in the book, The Orphan Tsunami. .[28]

1707
Nankai, Japan
1707 Hōei earthquake
Earthquake
On 28 October 1707, during the Hōei era, a magnitude 8.4 earthquake and tsunami up to 10 meters (33 feet) in height[29] struck Tosa Province (Kōchi Prefecture). More than 29,000 houses were wrecked and washed away, causing ~30,000 deaths. In Tosa, 11,170 houses were washed away, and 18,441 people drowned. About 700 drowned and 603 houses were washed away in Osaka. Waves reached 20 m[citation needed] at Tanezaki, Tosa (Kōchi, Kōchi), and 6.58 at Murotsu, Tosa (Muroto, Kōchi). Hot springs at Yunomine, Kii (Tanabe, Wakayama), Sanji (?), Ryujin, Kii (Tanabe, Wakayama) Kanayana (Shirahama, Wakayama) and Dōgo, Iyo (Matsuyama, Ehime) stopped flowing.[11]

1741
Western Oshima, Japan

Volcano
On 29 August 1741, the western side of Oshima Peninsula, Ezo (Hokkaido) was hit by a tsunami associated with the eruption of the volcano on Ōshima island. The cause of the tsunami is thought to have been a large landslide, partly submarine, triggered by the eruption.[30] 1,467 people were killed on Ezo.[31]

1755
Lisbon, Portugal
1755 Lisbon earthquake
Earthquake
Tens of thousands of Portuguese people who survived the Great Lisbon earthquake on 1 November 1755 were killed by a tsunami 40 minutes later. Many fled to the waterfront, an area safe from fires and falling debris during aftershocks. These people observed the sea rapidly receding, revealing a sea floor littered with lost cargo and shipwrecks. The tsunami then struck with a maximum height of 15 metres (49 ft), traveling far inland.
The earthquake, tsunami, and fires killed 40,000 to 50,000 people[32] (30,000 to 40,000 in Lisbon alone, out of a population of ~200,000). Historical records of explorations by early navigators such as Vasco da Gama were lost, and among the buildings destroyed were most examples of Portugal's Manueline architecture. Europeans of the 18th century struggled to understand the disaster within religious and rational belief systems, and philosophers of the Enlightenment, notably Voltaire, wrote about the event. The philosophical concept of the sublime, as described by Immanuel Kant took inspiration in part from attempts to comprehend the enormity of the Lisbon quake and tsunami.
The tsunami took just over 4 hours to travel over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to Cornwall in the United Kingdom. An account by Arnold Boscowitz claimed "great loss of life." It also hit Galway, Ireland, and caused serious damage to the Spanish Arch section of the city wall.

1771
Yaeyama Islands, Ryūkyū
1771 Great Yaeyama Tsunami
Earthquake

An undersea earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.4 occurred near Yaeyama Islands in the former Ryūkyū Kingdom (present day Okinawa, Japan) on 4 April 1771 at about 8 A.M. The earthquake is not believed to have directly resulted in any deaths, but a resulting tsunami killed an estimated 12,000 people (9,313 on the Yaeyama Islands and 2,548 on Miyako Islands[33]). Estimates of the highest run-up on Ishigaki Island range from 30 to 85.4 meters (99 to 280 feet). The tsunami put an abrupt stop to population growth on the islands, and was followed by malaria epidemics and crop failures which further decreased the population. It took 148 years for the population to return to pre-tsunami levels.

1781
Pingtung, Taiwan

In April or May 1781, according to Records of Taiwan County, in Jiadong, Pingtung County, a ten-foot wave engulfed the town. Fish and shrimp thrashed wildly on the shore and nearby fishing villages wiped out. However, there was no earthquake reported.[34] A different source claims a 30-meter (99-foot) wave with also struck Tainan.[35] A possibility is a misrecording of date, corresponding with the above Great Yaeyama event.

1783
Calabria, Italy
1783 Calabrian earthquakes
Earthquake
The earthquake was the second of a sequence of five shocks that struck Calabria. The citizens of Scilla spent the night following the first earthquake on the beach, where they were swept away by the tsunami, causing 1,500 deaths. The tsunami was caused by the collapse of Monte Paci into the sea, near the town.

1792
Kyūshū, Japan
1792 Unzen earthquake and tsunami
Volcanic processes
Tsunamis were the main cause of death for Japan's worst-ever volcanic disaster, an eruption of Mount Unzen, Hizen Province (Nagasaki Prefecture), Kyushu, Japan. Toward the end of 1791 a series of earthquakes on the west flank of Mount Unzen moved towards Fugen-dake, one of Mount Unzen's peaks. In February 1792, Fugen-dake erupted, triggering a lava flow which continued for two months. The earthquakes continued, shifting nearer to the city of Shimabara. On the night of 21 May, two large earthquakes were followed by a collapse of the east flank of Mount Unzen's Mayuyama dome, causing an avalanche which swept through Shimabara and into Ariake Bay, triggering a tsunami. It is not known whether the collapse was a result of an eruption or a result of the earthquakes. The tsunami struck Higo Province (Kumamoto Prefecture) across Ariake Bay before bouncing back. Out of an estimated 15,000 fatalities, around 5,000 are thought to have been killed by the landslide, around 5,000 by the tsunami in Higo Province, and 5,000 by the tsunami returning to strike Shimabara. The waves reached a height of 330 ft (100 m), making this a small megatsunami.

1797
Sumatra, Indonesia
1797 Sumatra earthquake
Earthquake
On 10 February 1797, a massive earthquake estimated to have been approximately 8.4 on the moment magnitude scale, struck Sumatra in Indonesia. Many fatalities resulted although it is not known how many.

text:
Date
Location
Main Article
Primary Cause
Description

1806
Goldau, Switzerland
1806 Goldau landslide
Landslide
A landslide of 120,000,000 tonnes of rock, much of which displaced water from Lake Lauerz causing a tsunami that flooded lake side villages and resulted in the confirmed death of 457 people.

1819
Gujarat, India
1819 Rann of Kutch earthquake
Earthquake
A local tsunami flooded the Great Rann of Kutch

1833
Sumatra, Indonesia
1833 Sumatra earthquake
Earthquake
On 25 November 1833, a massive earthquake estimated to have been between 8.8–9.2 on the moment magnitude scale, struck Sumatra in Indonesia. The coast of Sumatra near the quake's epicentre was hardest hit by the resulting tsunami.

1854
Nankai, Tōkai, and Kyushu, Japan
Ansei great earthquakes
Earthquake
The Ansei quake which hit the south coast of Japan, was actually a set of three earthquakes, two magnitude 8.4 quakes and a 7.4 quake over the course of several days.

An 8.4 magnitude earthquake on November 4, 1854, near Mikawa Province (Aichi Prefecture) and Tōtōmi Province (Shizuoka Prefecture) produced tsunami heights of 4–6 m (with localized run-ups up to 16.5 m, thought to be due to harbor shape).[36]
Another 8.4 magnitude earthquake on November 5 in Kii Province (Wakayama Prefecture). The resulting tsunami reached as high as 8.4 m.[37] The tsunami washed 15,000 homes away.[citation needed] The number of homes destroyed directly by the earthquake was 2,598; 1,443 people died.[11]
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake on Nov 7, 1854 in Iyo Province (Ehime Prefecture) and Bungo Province (Ōita Prefecture).

The total result was 80,000–100,000 deaths.[38]

1855
Edo, Japan
1855 Ansei Edo earthquake
Earthquake
The following year, the 1855 Great Ansei Edo earthquake hit the Edo (Tokyo) region of Japan, killing 4,500 to 10,000 people. Popular stories of the time blamed the quakes and tsunamis on giant catfish called Namazu thrashing about. The Japanese era name was changed to bring good luck after four disastrous quakes/tsunamis in two years.

1867
Virgin Islands

Earthquake
On November 18, 1867, a large doublet earthquake occurred in the Virgin Islands archipelago. The shock probably occurred between the islands of Saint Thomas and Saint Croix. The highest runup of 7.6 m (25 ft) was observed at Frederiksted on Saint Croix, and came within minutes of the shocks.[39]

1867
Keelung, Taiwan

Earthquake
Dec 18, 1867, a large quake hit Keelung, Taiwan, causing crustal deformation of the mountains and opening of fissures. The water drained out of Keelung harbor so that the sea bed was revealed, then suddenly returned in a huge wave. Boats were washed into the city center and there was much damage. In many locations, the ground and the mountains split open and water poured from the fissures. Hundreds of deaths resulted.[34][35]

1868
Hawaiian Islands
1868 Hawaii earthquake
Earthquake
On 2 April 1868, a local earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.5-8.0 rocked the southeast coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. It triggered a landslide on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano, five miles (8 km) north of Pahala, killing 31 people. A tsunami then claimed 46 additional lives. The villages of Punaluu,k Ninole, Kawaa, Honuapo, and Keauhou Landing were severely damaged and the village of Apua was destroyed. According to one account, the tsunami "rolled in over the tops of the coconut trees, probably 60 feet high .... inland a distance of a quarter of a mile in some places, taking out to sea when it returned, houses, men, women, and almost everything movable." This was reported in the 1988 edition of Walter C. Dudley's book "Tsunami!" (ISBN 0-8248-1125-9).

1868
Arica, Peru (now part of Chile)
1868 Arica earthquake
Earthquake
On August 16, 1868, an earthquake with a magnitude estimated at 8.5 struck the oceanic trench currently known as the Peru–Chile Trench. A resulting tsunami struck the port of Arica, then part of Peru, killing an estimated 25,000 in Arica and 70,000 in all. Three military vessels anchored at Arica, the US warship USS Wateree and the storeship Fredonia, and the Peruvian warship America, were swept up by the tsunami.[40]

1877
Iquique, Chile
1877 Iquique earthquake
Earthquake
On May 9, 1877, an earthquake with a magnitude estimated at 8.5 occurred off the coast of what is now Chile that caused a destructive tsunami that killed about 2541 people. This event followed the destructive earthquake and tsunami at Arica by just nine years.[41]

1881
Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands
1881 Nicobar Islands earthquake
Earthquake
The tsunami triggered by this earthquake was recorded all round the coast of the Bay of Bengal by tide gauges. This information has been used to estimate the rupture area and magnitude of the earthquake.

1883
Krakatoa, Sunda Strait, Indonesia
1883 eruption of Krakatoa
Volcanic eruption
The island volcano of Krakatoa in Indonesia exploded with devastating fury on August 26–27, 1883, blowing its underground magma chamber partly empty so that much overlying land and seabed collapsed into it. The collapse generated a series of large tsunami waves, some higher than 40 meters above sea level. Tsunami waves were observed throughout the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and as far away as the American West Coast, and South America. On the facing coasts of Java and Sumatra the sea flood went many miles inland and caused such vast loss of life[42] that one area was never resettled but reverted to the jungle and is now the Ujung Kulon nature reserve.

1896
Sanriku, Japan
1896 Sanriku earthquake
Earthquake
On 15 June 1896, at around 19:36 local time, a large undersea earthquake off the Sanriku coast of northeastern Honshu, Japan, triggered tsunami waves which struck the coast about half an hour later. Although the earthquake itself is not thought to have resulted in any fatalities, the waves, which reached a height of 100 feet (30 m), killed approximately 27,000 people. In 2005, the same general area was hit by the 2005 Sanriku Japan earthquake, but with no major tsunami.

text:
Date
Location
Main Article
Primary Cause
Description

1905
Loenvatnet, Norway

Rockfall
On January 15, 1905, a rockfall hit the lake Loenvatnet in Sogn og Fjordane, creating a 40 m (130 ft) flood wave that destroyed the villages of Ytre Nesdal and Bødal, killing 61 people.[43] The slide, which started 500 metres up the mountainside of Mount Ramnefjell, carried an approximate mass of 870,000 metric tons when it entered the lake.[44]

1906
Tumaco-Esmeraldas, Colombia-Ecuador
1906 Ecuador–Colombia earthquake
Earthquake
The earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed 500 people in Tumaco and Esmeraldas and struck Colombia, Ecuador, California, Hawaii, and Japan. Waves were 5 meters high.

1908
Messina, Italy
1908 Messina earthquake
Underwater landslide triggered by an earthquake

The aftermath of the tsunami that struck Messina in 1908

The earthquake combined with the tsunami took about 123,000 lives.[45]

1918
Puerto Rico
1918 San Fermín earthquake
Earthquake/submarine landslide
A large tsunami (that may have been associated with a submarine landslide) affected northwest Puerto Rico.[46]

1923
Kantō, Japan
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
Earthquake
The Great Kantō earthquake, which occurred in eastern Japan on 1 September 1923, and devastated Tokyo, Yokohama, and the surrounding areas, caused tsunamis which struck the Shōnan coast, Bōsō Peninsula, Izu Islands and the east coast of Izu Peninsula, within minutes in some cases. In Atami, waves reaching 12 meters were recorded. Examples of tsunami damage include about 100 people killed along Yuigahama beach in Kamakura and an estimated 50 people on the Enoshima causeway. However, tsunamis only accounted for a small proportion of the final death toll of over 100,000, most of whom were killed in fire.

1929
Newfoundland
1929 Grand Banks earthquake
Earthquake
On November 18, 1929, an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 occurred beneath the Laurentian Slope on the Grand Banks. The quake was felt throughout the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and as far away as Ottawa and Claymont, Delaware. The resulting tsunami measured over 7 meters in height and took about 2½ hours to reach the Burin Peninsula on the south coast of Newfoundland, where 28 people lost their lives in various communities. It also snapped telegraph cables laid under the Atlantic.[47]

1932
Mexico
1932 Jalisco earthquakes
Earthquake
Three very large-to-great shocks off the coast of Jalisco in June 1932 each generated tsunamis. The last and smallest event in the series occurred updip relative to the mainshock and generated the largest tsunami.[48]

1933
Sanriku, Japan
1933 Sanriku earthquake
Earthquake
On March 3, 1933, the Sanriku coast of northeastern Honshu, Japan, which suffered a devastating tsunami in 1896 (see above), was again stuck by tsunami waves resulting from an offshore magnitude 8.1 earthquake. The quake destroyed ~5,000 homes and killed 3,068 people, the vast majority as a result of tsunami waves. Especially hard hit was the coastal village of Tarō (now part of Miyako city) in Iwate Prefecture, which lost 42% of its total population and 98% of its buildings. Tarō is now protected by a tsunami wall, currently 10 meters in height and over 2 kilometers long.[49]

1934
Tafjord, Norway
Tafjord
Rockslide
On 7 April 1934, a rockslide of about 2,000,000 cubic metres (2,600,000 cu yd) of rock fell off the mountain Langhamaren from a height of about 700 metres (2,300 ft). The rock landed in the Tafjorden which created a local tsunami which killed 40 people[50] living on the shore of the fjord. The waves reached a height of 62 metres (203 ft) near the landslide, about 7 metres (23 ft) at Sylte, and about 16 metres (52 ft) at Tafjord. It was one of the worst natural disasters in Norway in the 20th century.[51]

1936
Loenvatnet, Norway

Rockfall
On September 13, approximately one million cubic metres of mountainside dislodged from the Mt. Ramnefjell at a height of 800 metres[44] and landed in lake Loenvatnet in Sogn og Fjordane, creating a 70 m (230 ft) flood wave that destroyed several farms, killing 74 people. The second such incident in 31 years, the disaster caused the permanent depopulation of the area.[52]

1944
Tōnankai, Japan
1944 Tōnankai earthquake
Earthquake
A magnitude 8.0 earthquake on 7 December 1944, about 20 km off the Shima Peninsula in Japan, which struck the Pacific coast of central Japan, mainly Mie, Aichi, and Shizuoka Prefectures. News of the event was downplayed by the authorities in order to protect wartime morale, and as a result the full extent of the damage is not known, but the quake is estimated to have killed 1223 people, the tsunami being the leading cause of the fatalities.

1945
Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean
1945 Balochistan earthquake
Earthquake
The earthquake with moment magnitude of 8.1 and a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale, occurred in British India at 5:26 PST on 28 November 1945. It resulted from a fault rupture near the Makran Trench. The resulting tsunami caused damage along the Makran coastal region affecting Pakistan, Iran, Oman and India.[53][54]

1946
Nankai, Japan
1946 Nankai earthquake
Earthquake
The Nankai earthquake on 21 December 1946 had a magnitude of 8.4 and occurred at 04:19 (local time) to the southwest of Japan in the Nankai Trough. This event was one of the Nankai megathrust earthquakes, periodic earthquakes observed off the southern coast of Kii Peninsula and Shikoku, Japan every 100 to 150 years. The subsequent tsunami washed away 1451 houses and caused 1500 deaths in Japan, and was observed on tide gauges in California, Hawaii, and Peru.[11] Particularly hard hit were the coastal towns of Kushimoto and Kainan on the Kii Peninsula. The quake led to more than 1400 deaths, tsunami being the leading cause.

1946
Aleutian Islands
1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake
Earthquake

Residents running from an approaching tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii

On 1 April 1946, the Aleutian Islands tsunami killed 159 people on Hawaii and five in Alaska (the lighthouse keepers at the Scotch Cap Light in the Aleutians). It resulted in the creation of a tsunami warning system known as the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), established in 1949 for Oceania countries. The tsunami is known as the April Fools Day Tsunami in Hawaii because it happened on April 1 and many people thought it to be an April Fools Day prank.

text:
Date
Location
Main Article
Primary Cause
Description

1952
Severo-Kurilsk, Kuril Islands, USSR
1952 Severo-Kurilsk earthquake
Earthquake
The November 5, 1952 tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, killed 2,336 on the Kuril Islands, USSR.

1956
Amorgos, Greece

Earthquake
Fifty-three deaths occurred during the largest 20th-century earthquake in Greece. The island of Santorini was damaged by the shock, and a localised tsunami affected the Cyclades and Dodecanese island groups. A maximum runup of 30 m (98 ft)) was observed on the southern coast of Amorgos.[55]

1958
Lituya Bay, Alaska, U.S.
1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami
Earthquake-triggered landslide
On the night of July 9, 1958 an earthquake along the Fairweather Fault in Alaska loosened ~40 million cubic yards (30.6 million cubic meters) of rock 3000 feet (914 meters) above the northeastern shore of Lituya Bay. The impact in the waters of Gilbert Inlet generated a local tsunami that crashed against the southwest shoreline and swept completely over the spur of land separating Gilbert Inlet from the main Lituya Bay. The wave continued down the length of Lituya Bay, over La Chaussee Spit and into the Gulf of Alaska. The force of the wave removed all trees and vegetation from elevations as high as 1720 feet (524 meters) above sea level. This is the highest wave that has ever been recorded, and the first time such a wave had ever been observed. The scale of this wave was so much greater than ordinary tsunamis, it eventually led to the new category of megatsunamis.

1960
Valdivia, Chile, and Pacific Ocean
1960 Valdivia earthquake or Great Chilean earthquake
Earthquake
The magnitude-9.5 earthquake of 22 May 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded, generated one of the most destructive tsunamis of the 20th century. The tsunami spread across the Pacific Ocean, with waves measuring up to 25 meters high in places. The first tsunami wave struck at Hilo approximately 14.8 hrs after it originated off the coast of South Central Chile. The highest wave at Hilo Bay was measured at ~10.7 m (35 ft). 61 lives were lost, allegedly due to people's failure to heed warning sirens. Almost 22 hours after the quake, the waves hit the Sanriku coast of Japan, reaching up to 3 m above high tide, and killing 142 people. Up to 6,000 people died in total worldwide due to the earthquake and tsunami.[56]

1963
Vajont Dam, Monte Toc, Italy
Vajont Dam
Landslide

The Vajont Dam as seen from Longarone on 25 September 2012, showing the top 60–70 metres. The 200–250-metre (656–820-foot) megatsunami would have obscured virtually all of the sky in this picture.

The Vajont Dam was completed in 1961 under Monte Toc, 100 km north of Venice, Italy. At 262 metres (860 feet), it was one of the highest dams in the world. On October 9, 1963 an enormous landslide of about 260 million cubic meters of forest, earth, and rock, fell into the reservoir at up to 110 km per hour (68 mph). The resulting displacement of water caused 50 million cubic metres of water to overtop the dam in a 250-metre (820-foot) high megatsunami wave. The flooding destroyed the villages of Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova and Faè, killing 1,450 people. Almost 2,000 people (some sources report 1,909) perished in total.

1964
Niigata, Japan
1964 Niigata earthquake
Earthquake
28 people died, and entire apartment buildings were destroyed by liquefaction of the ground. The subsequent tsunami destroyed the port of Niigata.

1964
Alaska, U.S. and Pacific Ocean
1964 Alaska earthquake
Earthquake
After the magnitude 9.2 Good Friday earthquake of March 27, 1964, tsunamis struck Alaska, British Columbia, California, and coastal Pacific Northwest towns, killing 121 people. The waves were up to 100 feet (30 m) tall, and killed 11 people as far away as Crescent City, California.

1965
Shemya Island, Alaska
1965 Rat Islands earthquake
Earthquake
The February 4, 1965, Rat Islands earthquake generated a 10.7-metre (35 ft) tsunami on Shemya Island.[57]

1969
Portugal, Morocco
1969 Portugal earthquake
Earthquake
A large undersea earthquake off the coast of Portugal generated a tsunami that affected both Portugal and Morocco.[58]

1976
Moro Gulf, Mindanao, Philippines
1976 Moro Gulf earthquake
Earthquake
On August 16, 1976 at 12:11 A.M., magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit the island of Mindanao, Philippines. The resultant tsunami devastated more than 700 km of coastline bordering Moro Gulf in the North Celebes Sea. An estimated casualties included 5,000 dead, 2,200 missing or presumed dead, more than 9,500 injured and a total of 93,500 people left homeless. It devastated the cities of Cotabato, Pagadian, and Zamboanga, and the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, and Zamboanga del Sur.

1979
Tumaco, Colombia
1979 Tumaco earthquake
Earthquake
A magnitude 8.1 earthquake occurred on 12 December 1979 at 7:59:4.3 UTC along the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador. The earthquake and resulting tsunami destroyed at least six fishing villages and killed hundreds of people in the Colombian Department of Nariño. The earthquake was felt in Bogotá, Cali, Popayán, Buenaventura, Guayaquil, Esmeraldas, and Quito. The tsunami caused huge destruction in the city of Tumaco, as well as in the towns of El Charco, San Juan, Mosquera, and Salahonda on the Pacific coast of Colombia. Casualties included 259 dead, 798 wounded and 95 missing or presumed dead.

1980
Spirit Lake, Washington, U.S.
Spirit Lake (Washington), 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Mount St. Helens
Volcanic eruption
On May 18, 1980, in the course of a major eruption of Mount St. Helens, the upper 460 m (1400 ft) of the mountain failed, causing a major landslide. One lobe of the landslide surged onto the nearby Spirit Lake, creating a megatsunami 260 meters (853 feet) high.[59]

1983
Sea of Japan
1983 Sea of Japan earthquake
Earthquake
On May 26, 1983 at 11:59:57 local time, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake occurred in the Sea of Japan, about 100 km west of the coast of Noshiro in Akita Prefecture, Japan. Out of the 107 fatalities, all but four were killed by the resulting tsunami, which struck communities along the coast, especially Aomori and Akita Prefectures and the Noto Peninsula. Footage of the tsunami hitting the fishing harbor of Wajima on Noto Peninsula was broadcast on TV. The waves exceeded 10 meters in some areas. Three of the fatalities were along the east coast of South Korea (whether North Korea was affected is not known). The tsunami also hit Okushiri Island, the site of a more deadly tsunami 10 years later. This tsunami killed 104 people and injured 235.

1992
Nicaragua
1992 Nicaragua earthquake
Earthquake
A 7.2+ quake hit offshore in Nicaragua, sending a devastating tsunami into the Rivas department coast, killing some 116 people. The wave magnitude, 9.9 meters high, was unusually large given the size of the earthquake.

1993
Okushiri, Hokkaido, Japan
1993 Hokkaido earthquake
Earthquake
A devastating tsunami wave struck Hokkaido in Japan as a result of a magnitude 7.8 offshore earthquake 80 miles (130 km) on 12 July 1993. Within minutes, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning that was broadcast on NHK in English and Japanese (archived at NHK library). However, at Okushiri, a small island near the epicenter, some waves reached 30 meters and struck within two to five minutes of the quake. Despite being surrounded by tsunami barriers, Aonae, a village on a low-lying peninsula, was devastated over the following hour by 13 waves over two meters high arriving from multiple directions, including waves that bounced back off Hokkaido. Of 250 people killed as a result of the quake, 197 were victims of the tsunami that hit Okushiri; the waves also caused deaths on the coast of Hokkaido. While many residents, remembering the 1983 tsunami (see above), survived by evacuating on foot to higher ground, many others underestimated how soon the waves would arrive (the 1983 tsunami took 17 minutes to hit Okushiri) and were killed as they attempted to evacuate by car along the village’s narrow lanes. The highest wave of the tsunami was 31 meters (102 ft) high.

1994
Java earthquake
1994 Java earthquake
Earthquake
Two hundred and fifty killed as a M7.8 earthquake and tsunami affected east Java and Bali on June 3, 1994.

1998
Papua New Guinea
1998 Papua New Guinea earthquake
Earthquake
On 17 July 1998, a Papua New Guinea tsunami killed approximately 2,200 people.[60] A 7.1-magnitude earthquake 24 km offshore was followed within 11 minutes by a tsunami about 15 metres tall. The tsunami was generated by an undersea landslide, which was triggered by the earthquake. The villages of Arop and Warapu were destroyed.

1999
Sea of Marmara
1999 İzmit earthquake
Earthquake
The earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Sea of Marmara, with a maximum water height of 2.52 m. 150 people were killed when the town of Degirmendere was flooded and a further five were swept into the sea at Ulaşlı.[61][62]

text:
Date
Location
Main Article
Primary Cause
Description

2004
Indian Ocean
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Earthquake

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake; Tsunami striking Ao Nang, Thailand

Animation of the tsunami caused by the earthquake showing how the tsunami radiated from the entire length of the 1,600 km (990 mi) rupture

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (moment magnitude 9.1–9.3)[11] triggered a series of tsunamis on 26 December 2004, killing approximately 230,210 people (168,000 in Indonesia alone), making it the deadliest tsunami and one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. The earthquake was the third largest earthquake in recorded history. The initial surge was measured at a height of approximately 33 meters (108 ft), making it the largest earthquake-generated tsunami in recorded history. The tsunami killed people over an area ranging from the immediate vicinity of the quake in Indonesia, Thailand, and the north-west coast of Malaysia, to thousands of kilometres away in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and as far away as Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania in Africa. This trans-Indian Ocean tsunami is an example of a teletsunami, which travels vast distances across the open ocean, and an ocean-wide tsunami. It became known as the "Boxing Day Tsunami" because it struck on Boxing Day (26 December).
Unlike in the Pacific Ocean, there was no organized alert service covering the Indian Ocean. This was in part due to the absence of major tsunami events since 1883 (the Krakatoa eruption, see above). In light of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, UNESCO and other world bodies have called for an international tsunami monitoring system.

2006
South of Java Island
2006 Pangandaran earthquake and tsunami
Earthquake
A 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked the Indian Ocean seabed on 17 July 2006, 200 km south of Pangandaran, a beach famous to surfers for its perfect waves. This earthquake triggered tsunamis with heights that varied from 2 meters at Cilacap to 6 meters at Cimerak beach, where it swept away and flattened buildings as far as 400 metres away from the coastline. More than 800 people were reported missing or dead.

2006
Kuril Islands
2006 Kuril Islands earthquake
Earthquake
On 15 November 2006, a magnitude 8.3 earthquake occurred off the coast near the Kuril Islands. In spite of the quake's large 8.3 magnitude, a relatively small tsunami was generated. This tsunami was recorded or observed in Japan and at distant locations throughout the Pacific.

2007
Solomon Islands
2007 Solomon Islands earthquake
Earthquake
On 2 April 2007, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck about 40 km (25 mi) south of Ghizo Island in the western Solomon Islands at 7:39 a.m., resulting in a tsunami that was up to 12 m (36 feet) high. The wave, which struck the coast of Solomon Islands (mainly Choiseul, Ghizo Island, Ranongga, and Simbo), triggered tsunami warnings and watches extending from Japan to New Zealand to Hawaii and eastern Australia. The tsunami killed 52 people and dozens were injured when waves inundated towns. A state of national emergency was declared for the Solomon Islands. On the island of Choiseul, a wall of water reported to be 9.1 m (30 feet) high swept almost 400 meters inland. The largest waves hit the northern tip of Simbo Island, where two villages, Tapurai and Riquru, were completely destroyed by a 12 m wave, killing 10 people. Officials estimate that the tsunami displaced more than 5000 residents throughout the archipelago.

2007
British Columbia

Landslide
On 4 December 2007, a landslide entered Chehalis Lake in British Columbia, generating a large lake tsunami that destroyed campgrounds and vegetation many meters above the shoreline.[63]

2009
Samoa
2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami
Earthquake
A submarine earthquake took place in the Samoan Islands region at 06:48:11 local time on September 29, 2009. This magnitude 8.1 quake on the outer rise of the Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone was the largest earthquake of 2009.
The subsequent tsunami caused substantial damage and loss of life in Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center recorded a 76 mm (3.0 in) rise in sea levels near the epicenter, and New Zealand scientists noted waves as high as 14 m (46 ft) on the Samoan coast. More than 189 people were killed, especially children, mostly in Samoa. Large waves with no major damage were reported on Fiji, the northern coast of New Zealand and Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. People on low-lying atolls of Tokelau moved to higher ground as a precaution.

2010
Chile
2010 Chile earthquake
Earthquake

Destruction provoked by the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami, in Pichilemu, O'Higgins Region, Chile

On 27 February 2010, an 8.8 earthquake offshore of Chile caused a tsunami which caused serious damage and loss of life, it also caused minor effects in other Pacific nations.

2010
Sumatra
2010 Mentawai earthquake and tsunami
Earthquake
On 25 October 2010, a 7.7 earthquake struck near South Pagai Island in Indonesia triggering a localized tsunami that killed at least 408 people.

2011
New Zealand
2011 Christchurch earthquake
Earthquake-triggered ice fall
On 22 February 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the Canterbury Region of the South Island, New Zealand. Some 200 kilometres (120 mi) away from the earthquake's epicenter, around 30 million tonnes of ice tumbled off the Tasman Glacier into Tasman Lake, producing a series of 3.5 m (11 ft) high tsunami waves, which hit tourist boats in the lake.[64][65]

2011
Pacific coast of Japan
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Earthquake

Play media

NOAA animation of the tsunami's propagation

On 11 March 2011, off the Pacific coast of Japan, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake produced a tsunami 33 feet (10 m) high along Japan's northeastern coast. The wave caused widespread devastation, with an official count of 18,550 people confirmed to be killed/missing.[66] The highest tsunami which was recorded at Miyako, Iwate reached a total height of 40.5 metres (133 ft).[67] In addition the tsunami precipitated multiple hydrogen explosions and nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Tsunami warnings were issued to the entire Pacific Rim.[68][69]

2013
Solomon Islands
2013 Solomon Islands earthquake
Earthquake
On 6 February 2013, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Moment Magnitude scale struck the island nation of Solomon Islands. This earthquake created tsunami waves up to around 1 meter high. The tsunami also affected some other islands like New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

2014
Iceland
Askja
Landslide
At 11:24 PM on 21 July 2014, in a period experiencing an earthquake swarm related to the upcoming eruption of Bárðarbunga, an 800m-wide section gave way on the slopes of the Icelandic volcano Askja. Beginning at 350m over water height, it caused a tsunami 20–30 meters high across the caldera, and potentially larger at localized points of impact. Thanks to the late hour, no tourists were present; however, search and rescue observed a steam cloud rising from the volcano, apparently geothermal steam released by the landslide. Whether geothermal activity played a role in the landslide is uncertain. A total of 30–50 million cubic meters was involved in the landslide, raising the caldera's water level by 1–2 meters.[70]

2015
Chile
2015 Chile earthquake
Earthquake
On Wednesday, September 16, 2015, a major earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Moment Magnitude scale struck the west coast of Chile, causing a tsunami up to 16 feet (4.88 meters) high along the Chilean coast.

2016
New Zealand
2016 Kaikoura earthquake
Earthquake
On November 14, 2016, a big earthquake struck the South Island of New Zealand measuring 7.5 to 7.8 magnitude. A 2.5 metre tsunami hit Kaikoura and other small waves less than one metre hit various shores in New Zealand.

2017
Greenland

Landslide
On June 17, 2017, a landslide measuring 300 m × 1,100 m (980 ft × 3,610 ft) fell about 1 km (3,300 ft) into the Karrat fjord in the Uummannaq area in Western Greenland. The resultant tsunami hit the settlement Nuugaatsiaq killing four people, injuring nine and washing eleven buildings into the water.[71][72] In the beginning the tsunami had a height of 90 m (300 ft), but it was significantly lower once it hit the settlement.[72] Initially it was unclear if the landslide was caused by a small earthquake (magnitude 4),[71] but later it was confirmed that the landslide had caused the tremors.[72]

text: Highest or tallest[edit]

text:
The tallest tsunami ever recorded is the 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami, which had a record height of 524 m (1,719 ft).
The only other recent megatsunamis are the 1980 Spirit Lake megatsunami, which measured 260 m (850 ft) tall and the 1963 Vajont Dam megatsunami which had an initial height of 250 m (820 ft).

tag: ul

text: Deadliest[edit]

text: The deadliest tsunami in recorded history was the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed almost 230,000 people in eleven countries. The 365 CE Mediterranean tsunami's death toll may have been much higher.[citation needed]

tag: p


document_title: Pre-Columbian era

question_text: in the pre-columbian era what were the only domesticated beasts of burden in the americas

text: Pre-Columbian era

text: History[edit]

text: Before the development of archaeology in the 19th century, historians of the pre-Columbian period mainly interpreted the records of the European conquerors and the accounts of early European travellers and antiquaries. It was not until the nineteenth century that the work of men such as John Lloyd Stephens, Eduard Seler and Alfred P. Maudslay, and of institutions such as the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, led to the reconsideration and criticism of the European sources. Now, the scholarly study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific and multidisciplinary methodologies.[2]

text: Settlement of the Americas[edit]

text: Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia), now the Bering Strait and possibly along the coast. Genetic evidence found in Amerindians' maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia.[3][4] Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America. Exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago. However, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago.[5] The chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14,000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants.[6][7][8][9] The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at a much earlier date, possibly 50,000–40,000 years ago or earlier.[10][11][12][13]

text: Artifacts have been found in both North and South America which have been dated to 14,000 years ago,[14] and accordingly humans have been proposed to have reached Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America by this time. In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a much later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago, moving across the ice from Siberia into Alaska.

text: North America[edit]

text: Archaic period[edit]

text: The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded. It finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago; climatic conditions were then very similar to today's.[15] Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified.

text: The unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes.[16] The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family. These groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought.[17] During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon and ancient bison.[18] Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools. These included distinctive projectile points and knives, as well as less distinctive implements used for butchering and hide processing.

text: The vastness of the North American continent, and the variety of its climates, ecology, vegetation, fauna, and landforms, led ancient peoples to coalesce into many distinct linguistic and cultural groups.[19] This is reflected in the oral histories of the indigenous peoples, described by a wide range of traditional creation stories which often say that a given people has been living in a certain territory since the creation of the world.

text: Over the course of thousands of years, paleo-indian people domesticated, bred and cultivated a number of plant species. These species were very nutritious, and they now constitute 50–60% of all crops in cultivation worldwide.[20] In general, Arctic, Subarctic, and coastal peoples continued to live as hunters and gatherers, while agriculture was adopted in more temperate and sheltered regions. But wherever it was adopted, plant cultivation permitted a dramatic rise in population.[15]

text: Middle Archaic period[edit]

text: After the migration or migrations, it was several thousand years before the first complex societies arose, the earliest emerging about seven to eight thousand years ago.[citation needed] As early as 6500 BCE, people in the Lower Mississippi Valley at the Monte Sano site were building complex earthwork mounds, probably for religious purposes. This is the earliest dated of numerous mound complexes found in present-day Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Since the late twentieth century, archeologists have explored and dated these sites. They have found that they were built by hunter-gatherer societies, whose people occupied the sites on a seasonal basis, and who had not yet developed ceramics. Watson Brake, a large complex of eleven platform mounds, was constructed beginning in 3400 BCE and added to over 500 years. This has changed earlier assumptions that complex construction arose only after societies had adopted agriculture, become sedentary, often developed stratified hierarchy, and generally also developed ceramics. These ancient people had organized to build complex mound projects from a different basis.

text: Late Archaic period[edit]

text: Until the accurate dating of Watson Brake and similar sites, the oldest mound complex was thought to be Poverty Point, also located in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Built about 1500 BCE, it is the centerpiece of a culture extending over 100 sites on both sides of the Mississippi. The Poverty Point site has earthworks in the form of six concentric half-circles, divided by radial aisles, together with some mounds. The entire complex is nearly a mile across.

text: Mound building was continued by succeeding cultures, who built numerous sites in the middle Mississippi and Ohio River valleys as well, adding effigy mounds, conical and ridge mounds and other shapes.

text: Woodland period[edit]

text: The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures refers to the time period from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland" was coined in the 1930s and refers to prehistoric sites between the Archaic period and the Mississippian cultures. The Adena culture and the ensuing Hopewell tradition during this period built monumental earthwork architecture and established continent-spanning trade and exchange networks.

text: This period is considered a developmental stage without any massive changes in a short period, but instead having a continuous development in stone and bone tools, leather working, textile manufacture, tool production, cultivation, and shelter construction. Some Woodland peoples continued to use spears and atlatls until the end of the period, when they were replaced by bows and arrows.

text: Mississippian culture[edit]

text: The Mississippian culture was spread across the Southeast and Midwest from the Atlantic coast to the edge of the plains, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Upper Midwest, although most intensively in the area along the Mississippi River and Ohio River. One of the distinguishing features of this culture was the construction of complexes of large earthen mounds and grand plazas, continuing the moundbuilding traditions of earlier cultures. They grew maize and other crops intensively, participated in an extensive trade network, and had a complex stratified society. The Mississippians first appeared around 1000 CE, following and developing out of the less agriculturally intensive and less centralized Woodland period. The largest urban site of this people, Cahokia—located near modern East St. Louis, Illinois—may have reached a population of over 20,000. Other chiefdoms were constructed throughout the Southeast, and its trade networks reached to the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico. At its peak, between the 12th and 13th centuries, Cahokia was the most populous city in North America. (Larger cities did exist in Mesoamerica and South America.) Monk's Mound, the major ceremonial center of Cahokia, remains the largest earthen construction of the prehistoric New World. The culture reached its peak in about 1200–1400 CE, and in most places, it seems to have been in decline before the arrival of Europeans.

text: Many Mississippian peoples were encountered by the expedition of Hernando de Soto in the 1540s, mostly with disastrous results for both sides. Unlike the Spanish expeditions in Mesoamerica, who conquered vast empires with relatively few men, the de Soto expedition wandered the American Southeast for four years, becoming more bedraggled, losing more men and equipment, and eventually arriving in Mexico as a fraction of its original size. The local people fared much worse though, as the fatalities of diseases introduced by the expedition devastated the populations and produced much social disruption. By the time Europeans returned a hundred years later, nearly all of the Mississippian groups had vanished, and vast swaths of their territory were virtually uninhabited.[21]

text: Historic tribes[edit]

text: When the Europeans arrived, indigenous peoples of North America had a wide range of lifeways from sedentary, agrarian societies to semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. Many formed new tribes or confederations in response to European colonization. These are often classified by cultural regions, loosely based on geography. These can include the following:

text:
Arctic, including Aleut, Inuit, and Yupik peoples
Subarctic
Northeastern Woodlands
Southeastern Woodlands
Great Plains
Great Basin
Northwest Plateau
Northwest Coast
California
Southwest (Oasisamerica)

text: Numerous pre-Columbian societies were sedentary, such as the Pueblo peoples, Mandan, Hidatsa and others, and some established large settlements, even cities, such as Cahokia, in what is now Illinois. The Iroquois League of Nations or "People of the Long House" was a politically advanced, democratic society, which is thought by some historians to have influenced the United States Constitution,[22][23] with the Senate passing a resolution to this effect in 1988.[24] Other historians have contested this interpretation and believe the impact was minimal, or did not exist, pointing to numerous differences between the two systems and the ample precedents for the constitution in European political thought.[25][26][27]

text: Mesoamerica[edit]

text: Mesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico south to the northwestern border of Costa Rica that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before the visits to the New World by Christopher Columbus. Mesoamerican is the adjective generally used to refer to that group of pre-Columbian cultures. This refers to an environmental area occupied by an assortment of ancient cultures that shared religious beliefs, art, architecture, and technology in the Americas for more than three thousand years.

text: Between 2000 and 300 BCE, complex cultures began to form in Mesoamerica. Some matured into advanced pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huastec, Purepecha, Toltec, and Mexica/Aztecs. The Mexica civilization is also known as the Aztec Triple Alliance, since they were three smaller kingdoms loosely united together[28][page needed].

text: These indigenous civilizations are credited with many inventions: building pyramid-temples, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, writing, highly accurate calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculator, and complex theology. They also invented the wheel, but it was used solely as a toy. In addition, they used native copper, silver and gold for metalworking.

text: Archaic inscriptions on rocks and rock walls all over northern Mexico (especially in the state of Nuevo León) demonstrate an early propensity for counting. Their number system was base 20 and included zero. These early count-markings were associated with astronomical events and underscore the influence that astronomical activities had upon Mesoamerican people before the arrival of Europeans. Many of the later Mesoamerican civilizations carefully built their cities and ceremonial centers according to specific astronomical events.

text: The biggest Mesoamerican cities, such as Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan, and Cholula, were among the largest in the world. These cities grew as centers of commerce, ideas, ceremonies, and theology, and they radiated influence outwards onto neighboring cultures in central Mexico.

text: While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, Mesoamerica can be said to have had five major civilizations: the Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Toltec, the Mexica and the Maya. These civilizations (with the exception of the politically fragmented Maya) extended their reach across Mesoamerica—and beyond—like no others. They consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology. Other regional power players made economic and political alliances with these civilizations over the span of 4,000 years. Many made war with them, but almost all peoples found themselves within one of their spheres of influence.

text: Regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica have been the subject of considerable research. There is evidence of trade routes starting as far north as the Mexico Central Plateau, and going down to the Pacific coast. These trade routes and cultural contacts then went on as far as Central America. These networks operated with various interruptions from pre-Olmec times and up to the Late Classical Period (600–900 CE).

text: Olmec civilization[edit]

text: The earliest known civilization is the Olmec. This civilization established the cultural blueprint by which all succeeding indigenous civilizations would follow in Mexico. Pre-Olmec civilization began with the production of pottery in abundance, around 2300 BCE in the Grijalva River delta. Between 1600 and 1500 BCE, the Olmec civilization had begun, with the consolidation of power at their capital, a site today known as San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán near the coast in southeast Veracruz.[29] The Olmec influence extended across Mexico, into Central America, and along the Gulf of Mexico. They transformed many peoples' thinking toward a new way of government, pyramid-temples, writing, astronomy, art, mathematics, economics, and religion. Their achievements paved the way for the Maya civilization and the civilizations in central Mexico.

text: Teotihuacan civilization[edit]

text: The decline of the Olmec resulted in a power vacuum in Mexico. Emerging from that vacuum was Teotihuacan, first settled in 300 BCE. By 150 CE, Teotihuacan had risen to become the first true metropolis of what is now called North America. Teotihuacan established a new economic and political order never before seen in Mexico. Its influence stretched across Mexico into Central America, founding new dynasties in the Maya cities of Tikal, Copan, and Kaminaljuyú. Teotihuacan's influence over the Maya civilization cannot be overstated: it transformed political power, artistic depictions, and the nature of economics. Within the city of Teotihuacan was a diverse and cosmopolitan population. Most of the regional ethnicities of Mexico were represented in the city, such as Zapotecs from the Oaxaca region. They lived in apartment communities where they worked their trades and contributed to the city's economic and cultural prowess. Teotihuacan's economic pull impacted areas in northern Mexico as well. It was a city whose monumental architecture reflected a monumental new era in Mexican civilization, declining in political power about 650 CE—but lasting in cultural influence for the better part of a millennium, to around 950 CE.

text: Maya civilization[edit]

text: Contemporary with Teotihuacan's greatness was that of the Maya civilization. The period between 250 CE and 650 CE was a time of intense flourishing of Maya civilized accomplishments. While the many Maya city-states never achieved political unity on the order of the central Mexican civilizations, they exerted a tremendous intellectual influence upon Mexico and Central America. The Maya built some of the most elaborate cities on the continent, and made innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and calendrics. The Mayans also evolved the only true writing system native to the Americas using pictographs and syllabic elements in the form of texts and codices inscribed on stone, pottery, wood, or highly perishable books made from bark paper.

text: Aztec/Mexica/Triple Alliance civilization[edit]

text: With the decline of the Toltec civilization came political fragmentation in the Valley of Mexico. Into this new political game of contenders to the Toltec throne stepped outsiders: the Mexica. They were also a desert people, one of seven groups who formerly called themselves "Azteca", in memory of Aztlán, but they changed their name after years of migrating. Since they were not from the Valley of Mexico, they were initially seen as crude and unrefined in the ways of Nahua civilization. Through political maneuvers and ferocious fighting skills, they managed to become the rulers of Mexico as the head of the 'Triple Alliance' (which included two other "Aztec" cities, Texcoco and Tlacopan).

text: Latecomers to Mexico's central plateau, the Mexica thought of themselves, nevertheless, as heirs of the civilizations that had preceded them. For them, arts, sculpture, architecture, engraving, feather-mosaic work, and the calendar, were bequest from the former inhabitants of Tula, the Toltecs.

text: The Mexica-Aztecs were the rulers of much of central Mexico by about 1400 (while Yaquis, Coras and Apaches commanded sizable regions of northern desert), having subjugated most of the other regional states by the 1470s. At their peak, 300,000 Mexica[citation needed] presided over a wealthy tribute-empire variously estimated at 5–8 million people in total a population of 8–12 millions. The actual population is never more than an estimate. The modern name "Mexico" comes from their name.

text: Their capital, Tenochtitlan, is the site of modern-day capital of Mexico, Mexico City. At its peak, it was one of the largest cities in the world with population estimates of 200–300,000.[30] The market established there was the largest ever seen by the conquistadors on arrival.

text: South America[edit]

text: By the first millennium, South America's vast rainforests, mountains, plains, and coasts were the home of millions of people. Estimates vary, but 30–50 million are often given and 100 million by some estimates. Some groups formed permanent settlements. Among those groups were Chibcha-speaking peoples ("Muisca" or "Muysca"), Valdivia, Quimbaya, Calima and the Tairona. The Muisca of Colombia, postdating the Herrera Period, Valdivia of Ecuador, the Quechuas and the Aymara of Peru and Bolivia were the four most important sedentary Amerindian groups in South America. From the 1970s, numerous geoglyphs have been discovered on deforested land in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil, supporting Spanish accounts of a complex, possibly ancient Amazonian civilization.[31][32]

text: The theory of pre-Columbian contact across the South Pacific Ocean between South America and Polynesia has received support from several lines of evidence, although solid confirmation remains elusive. A diffusion by human agents has been put forward to explain the pre-Columbian presence in Oceania of several cultivated plant species native to South America, such as the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) or sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Direct archaeological evidence for such pre-Columbian contacts and transport have not emerged. Similarities noted in names of edible roots in Maori and Ecuadorian languages ("kumari") and Melanesian and Chilean ("gaddu") have been inconclusive.[33]

text: A 2007 paper published in PNAS put forward DNA and archaeological evidence that domesticated chickens had been introduced into South America via Polynesia by late pre-Columbian times.[34] These findings were challenged by a later study published in the same journal, that cast doubt on the dating calibration used and presented alternative mtDNA analyses that disagreed with a Polynesian genetic origin.[35] The origin and dating remains an open issue. Whether or not early Polynesian–American exchanges occurred, no compelling human-genetic, archaeological, cultural or linguistic legacy of such contact has turned up.

text: Norte Chico or Caral[edit]

text: On the north-central coast of present-day Peru, Norte Chico or Caral (as known in Peru) was a civilization that emerged around 3000 BCE (contemporary with urbanism's rise in Mesopotamia.) It is considered one of the six cradles of civilization in the world.[36] It had a cluster of large-scale urban settlements of which the Sacred City of Caral, in the Supe valley, is one of the largest and best studied sites. Norte Chico or Caral is the oldest known civilization in the Americas and persisted until around 1800 BCE.[citation needed]

text: Valdivia[edit]

text: The Valdivia culture was concentrated on the coast of Ecuador. Their existence was recently discovered by archeological findings. Their culture is among the oldest found in the Americas, spanning from 3500 to 1800 BCE. The Valdivia lived in a community of houses built in a circle or oval around a central plaza. They were sedentary people who lived off farming and fishing, though occasionally they hunted for deer. From the remains that have been found, scholars have determined that Valdivians cultivated maize, kidney beans, squash, cassava, hot peppers, and cotton plants, the last of which was used to make clothing. Valdivian pottery initially was rough and practical, but it became showy, delicate, and big over time. They generally used red and gray colors; and the polished dark red pottery is characteristic of the Valdivia period. In its ceramics and stone works, the Valdivia culture shows a progression from the most simple to much more complicated works.

text: Cañaris[edit]

text: The Cañari were the indigenous natives of today's Ecuadorian provinces of Cañar and Azuay. They were an elaborate civilization with advanced architecture and complex religious beliefs. The Inca destroyed and burned most of their remains. The Cañari's old city was replaced twice, first by the Incan city of Tumebamba and later on the same site by the colonial city of Cuenca. The city was also believed to be the site of El Dorado, the city of gold from the mythology of Colombia. (see Cuenca)

text: The Cañari were most notable for having repelled the Incan invasion with fierce resistance for many years until they fell to Tupac Yupanqui. Many of their descendants are still present in Cañar. The majority did not mix with the colonists or become Mestizos.

text: Chavín[edit]

text: The Chavín, a South American preliterate civilization, established a trade network and developed agriculture by 900 BCE, according to some estimates and archeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called Chavín in modern Peru at an elevation of 3,177 meters. The Chavín civilization spanned from 900 to 300 BCE.

text: Muisca[edit]

text: The Chibcha-speaking communities were the most numerous, the most territorially extended and the most socio-economically developed of the pre-Hispanic Colombians. By the 8th century, the indigenous people had established their civilization in the northern Andes. At one point, the Chibchas occupied part of what is now Panama, and the high plains of the Eastern Sierra of Colombia.

text: The areas which they occupied in Colombia were the present-day Departments of Santander (North and South), Boyacá and Cundinamarca. This is where the first farms and industries were developed. It is also where the independence movement originated. They are currently the richest areas in Colombia. The Chibcha developed the most populous zone between the Mayan and Inca empires. Next to the Quechua of Peru and the Aymara in Bolivia, the Chibcha of the eastern and north-eastern Highlands of Colombia developed the most notable culture among the sedentary indigenous peoples in South America.

text: In the Colombian Andes, the Chibcha comprised several tribes who spoke similar languages (Chibcha). They included the following: the Muisca, Guane, Lache, Cofán, and Chitareros.

text: Moche[edit]

text: The Moche thrived on the north coast of Peru from about 100 to 800 CE. The heritage of the Moche is seen in their elaborate burials. Some were recently excavated by UCLA's Christopher B. Donnan in association with the National Geographic Society.

text: As skilled artisans, the Moche were a technologically advanced people. They traded with distant peoples such as the Maya. What has been learned about the Moche is based on study of their ceramic pottery; the carvings reveal details of their daily lives. The Larco Museum of Lima, Peru has an extensive collection of such ceramics. They show that the people practiced human sacrifice, had blood-drinking rituals, and that their religion incorporated non-procreative sexual practices (such as fellatio).

text: Tiwanaku empire[edit]

text: The Tiwanaku empire was based in western Bolivia and extended into present-day Peru and Chile from 300 to 1000. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important South American civilizations prior to the Inca Empire; it was the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five hundred years. The ruins of the ancient city state are near the south-eastern shore of Lake Titicaca in Tiwanaku Municipality, Ingavi Province, La Paz Department, about 72 km (45 mi) west of La Paz.

text: Inca Empire[edit]

text: Holding their capital at the great cougar-shaped city of Cuzco, the Inca civilization dominated the Andes region from 1438 to 1533. Known as Tawantinsuyu, or "the land of the four regions", in Quechua, the Inca civilization was highly distinct and developed. Inca rule extended to nearly a hundred linguistic or ethnic communities, some 9 to 14 million people connected by a 40,000 kilometer road system. Cities were built with precise stonework, constructed over many levels of mountain terrain. Terrace farming was a useful form of agriculture. There is evidence of excellent metalwork and even successful brain surgery in Inca civilization.

text: Cambeba[edit]

text: Also known as the Omagua, Umana and Kambeba, the Cambeba are an indigenous people in Brazil's Amazon basin. The Cambeba were a populous, organized society in the late Pre-Columbian era whose population suffered steep decline in the early years of the Columbian Exchange. The Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana traversed the Amazon River during the 16th century and reported densely populated regions running hundreds of kilometers along the river. These populations left no lasting monuments, possibly because they used local wood as their construction material as stone was not locally available. While it is possible Orellana may have exaggerated the level of development among the Amazonians, their semi-nomadic descendants have the odd distinction among tribal indigenous societies of a hereditary, yet landless, aristocracy. Archaeological evidence has revealed the continued presence of semi-domesticated orchards, as well as vast areas of land enriched with terra preta. Both of these discoveries, along with Cambeba ceramics discovered within the same archaeological levels suggest that a large and organized civilization existed in the area.[37]

text: Agricultural development[edit]

text: Early inhabitants of the Americas developed agriculture, developing and breeding maize (corn) from ears 2–5 cm in length to the current size are familiar today. Potatoes, tomatoes, tomatillos (a husked green tomato), pumpkins, chili peppers, squash, beans, pineapple, sweet potatoes, the grains quinoa and amaranth, cocoa beans, vanilla, onion, peanuts, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, papaya, and avocados were among other plants grown by natives. Over two-thirds of all types of food crops grown worldwide are native to the Americas.[citation needed]

text: The natives began using fire in a widespread manner. Intentional burning of vegetation was taken up to mimic the effects of natural fires that tended to clear forest understories, thereby making travel easier and facilitating the growth of herbs and berry-producing plants that were important for both food and medicines. This created the Pre-Columbian savannas of North America.[38]

text: While not as widespread as in other areas of the world (Asia, Africa, Europe), indigenous Americans did have livestock. Domesticated turkeys were common in Mesoamerica and in some regions of North America; they were valued for their meat, feathers, and, possibly, eggs. There is documentation of Mesoamericans utilizing hairless dogs, especially the Xoloitzcuintle breed, for their meat. Andean societies had llamas and alpacas for meat and wool, as well as for beasts of burden. Guinea pigs were raised for meat in the Andes. Iguanas and a range of wild animals, such as deer and pecari, were another source of meat in Mexico, Central, and northern South America.

text: By the 15th century, maize had been transmitted from Mexico and was being farmed in the Mississippi embayment, as far as the East Coast of the United States, and as far north as southern Canada. Potatoes were utilized by the Inca, and chocolate was used by the Aztecs.

text: Genetics[edit]

text: The haplogroup most commonly associated with Indigenous Amerindian genetics is Haplogroup Q1a3a (Y-DNA).[39] Y-DNA, like mtDNA, differs from other nuclear chromosomes in that the majority of the Y chromosome is unique and does not recombine during meiosis. This has the effect that the historical pattern of mutations can easily be studied.[40] The pattern indicates Indigenous Amerindians experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes; first with the initial-peopling of the Americas, and secondly with European colonization of the Americas.[41][42] The former is the determinant factor for the number of gene lineages and founding haplotypes present in today's Indigenous Amerindian populations.[42]

text: Human settlement of the New World occurred in stages from the Bering sea coast line, with an initial 20,000-year layover on Beringia for the founding population.[43][44] The micro-satellite diversity and distributions of the Y lineage specific to South America indicates that certain Amerindian populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.[45] The Na-Dené, Inuit and Indigenous Alaskan populations exhibit haplogroup Q-M242 (Y-DNA) mutations, however are distinct from other indigenous Amerindians with various mtDNA mutations.[46][47][48] This suggests that the earliest migrants into the northern extremes of North America and Greenland derived from later populations.[49]