Tsunamis have been reported since ancient times. They have been documented extensively especially in Japan because it is precariously situated near the colliding margins of four tectonic plates, also they are very frequent in the Mediterranean areas and along the west coast of South America, especially in Peru and Chile, that are one of the most tsunami-prone coasts in the world.
About four out five tsunamis happen within the "ring of fire," because of the great size of the Pacific Ocean - the world's largest ocean, covering more than one third of the total surface area of our planet -and the large earthquakes associated with the "ring of fire" combine to produce deadly tsunamis.
The only regions that have generated remote-source tsunamis affecting the entire Pacific Basin are the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands, the Gulf of Alaska, and the coast of South America. Hawaii, because of its location in the center of the Pacific Basin, has experienced tsunamis generated in all parts of the Pacific.
The Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas both have small subduction zones, and have histories of locally destructive tsunamis. Only a few tsunamis have been generated in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In the Atlantic Ocean, there are no subduction zones at the edges of plate boundaries to spawn such waves except small subduction zones under the Caribbean and Scotia arcs. Most tsunamis generated in the Indian Ocean area are propagated toward the southwest shores of Java and Sumatra because the Indo-Australian plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate at its east margin.

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