# Context Tsunami is a Japanese word that translates to "harbor wave". It is a wave or a series of waves generated by an impulsive vertical displacement of the surface of the ocean or other body of water. Tsunamis have been responsible for over 500,000 fatalities throughout the world — almost half from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami! # Content The NOAA/WDS tsunami database is a listing of historical tsunami source events and runup locations throughout the world from 2000 B.C. to the present. The events were gathered from scientific and scholarly sources, regional and worldwide catalogs, tide gauge data, deep ocean sensor data, individual event reports, and unpublished works. There are currently over 2,000 source events in the database with event validities greater than one and over 13,000 runup locations where tsunami effects were observed. # Acknowledgements NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and the World Data Service for Geophysics compiled and published this tsunami database for tsunami warning centers, engineers, oceanographers, seismologists, and the general public.