Tsunami vs Earthquake analysis

By the_data_guy · November 16, 2025

Out of 586 shallow earthquakes (depth less than 50km) in the dataset, 219 generated tsunamis. This means 37.37% of shallow earthquakes resulted in tsunami events.

Based on the analysis of 782 earthquakes, a significance score around 1850 best distinguishes tsunami-generating earthquakes. At this threshold and above, more than 50% of earthquakes generate tsunamis, making it an effective cutoff point for prediction.

Based on the analysis of earthquake data, magnitude 8.2 or higher is the most reliable threshold for predicting tsunamis, with a 71.4% accuracy rate. However, for practical early warning systems, magnitude 7.5 is recommended as it provides a better balance between prediction reliability (38.4%) and sufficient sample size (112 events).

The analysis identified the geographic regions most affected by tsunamis by clustering 304 tsunami events from the dataset. While the detailed summary encountered a technical error, the analysis successfully grouped tsunami locations into 8 distinct geographic clusters and created a world map visualization showing their distribution.

Yes, certain months do show higher tsunami occurrence rates. The analysis reveals notable variation across months, with rates ranging from 30.36% to 53.45% - a difference of about 23 percentage points.

Between 2001 and 2022, the dataset recorded 304 tsunamis with an average of 30.4 events per year. The frequency has remained relatively stable over this period, with 2014 experiencing the highest activity (40 tsunamis) and 2020 seeing the lowest (15 tsunamis).

No, higher station count (NST) does NOT improve tsunami detection accuracy. In fact, the analysis reveals a negative correlation of -0.60, meaning tsunami events are actually associated with FEWER monitoring stations, not more.

The analysis reveals a surprising finding about earthquake depth and tsunami generation. Contrary to initial expectations, the data shows a very weak positive correlation (0.057) between depth and tsunami likelihood, rather than the expected strong negative correlation. Shallow earthquakes (≤70km depth) generated tsunamis 37.5% of the time, while deeper earthquakes ( 70km) actually had a slightly higher rate at 44.2%. The median depth for both tsunami-generating and non-tsunami earthquakes is remarkably similar (27km vs 26km), suggesting that depth alone is not the primary factor in tsunami generation.

The Asia-Pacific region shows the highest concentration of earthquakes with both high magnitude and high intensity values, with 81 events meeting the criteria (magnitude ≥ 7.1 and MMI ≥ 7). The Americas follows with 40 earthquakes, while Middle East-Central Asia has 11, and Europe-Africa has just 3 events.

Azimuthal gap significantly affects tsunami prediction reliability. The analysis reveals that events with larger gaps (poorer seismic station coverage) show higher tsunami rates and reduced location accuracy. Events with tsunami have an average gap of 28.6 degrees compared to 22.8 degrees for non-tsunami events.

The average earthquake magnitude has shown a declining trend over the past two decades. From 2001 to 2022, the average magnitude decreased by 0.216 units, starting at 7.029 in 2001 and ending at 6.812 in 2022.

I've analyzed the average earthquake magnitude for each month of the year. While there was a minor error in displaying the detailed rankings, I successfully created a visualization showing the average magnitude for all 12 months. The chart displays the data in chronological order from January through December, with color coding to highlight which months experienced higher average magnitudes.

The latitude band between 60°S and 90°S (near Antarctica) experiences the strongest average earthquake magnitudes at 7.088. This is based on analysis of 8 earthquakes in that region, with magnitudes ranging from 6.60 to 7.70.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to analyze the tsunami trigger rate for earthquakes above magnitude 7.0 due to a technical error in processing the data. The analysis attempted to calculate what percentage of major earthquakes (magnitude 7.0+) resulted in tsunamis, but encountered an issue when filtering and analyzing the dataset.

Among regions with tsunami events, the Southern region (latitudes below -30°) has the lowest station coverage with an average of just 19.6 stations detecting events. This is notably lower than the Northern region, which has the highest coverage at 52.8 stations on average.

The analysis encountered a technical error during final processing, but successfully generated two visualizations showing the relationship between CDI (felt intensity) and tsunami occurrence. The data shows an overall tsunami rate of 38.9% across all earthquakes with recorded CDI values.

Moderate magnitude earthquakes (6.5-7.5) generate tsunamis primarily at shallow depths. Out of 271 recorded tsunami events in this magnitude range, the vast majority occur within the first 100 kilometers of depth, with nearly three-quarters happening in the shallowest zone (0-50km).

The best combination for predicting tsunami events is: shallow depth (0-70km), high magnitude (8.0+), and coastal location . Analysis of 304 tsunami events reveals that shallow earthquakes have a 37.5% tsunami rate, while magnitude 8.0+ earthquakes have a 34.8% tsunami rate. Coastal events (within 2km of shore) show a 28.5% tsunami rate.

The analysis reveals an interesting but counterintuitive relationship between dmin (minimum distance to seismic stations) and tsunami generation. Earthquakes WITH tsunamis actually have a HIGHER average dmin (2.44°) compared to those WITHOUT tsunamis (0.62°). However, when looking at tsunami generation rates by distance ranges, we see that earthquakes very close to stations (dmin 0-1°) tend to have higher tsunami generation rates, while those farther away (dmin 5°) have lower rates.

Out of 283 high-magnitude earthquakes (≥7.0), 173 (61%) did not produce tsunamis. The key characteristic distinguishing these events is their depth profile. Non-tsunami earthquakes occurred at an average depth of 63.9 km, with most (84%) happening at depths shallower than 70 km. Interestingly, the comparison shows that tsunami-generating earthquakes actually had a greater average depth (108.3 km), suggesting that depth alone isn't the determining factor—rather, it's the combination of depth, location, and fault type that matters.