7 CA Counties Remapped For Tsunami Hazards

CALIFORNIA — California has updated tsunami hazard maps for seven counties for communities determine whether their areas are at risk for inundation.

Maps in San Diego, Santa Cruz, Ventura, Marin, Sonoma, Solano and Napa counties were revised, the California Geological Survey announced Friday.

One of the updated maps showed that a subduction zone earthquake off the Aleutian Islands could trigger a tsunami to rise 18 to 25 above the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The estimation is double the height that the 2009 map suggested, according to the agency.

California's coastline has been hit by more than 150 tsunamis since 1800, according to the Geological Survey. Most had little impact, but 2011's tsunami was the most recent incident to cause major damage. Triggered by an earthquake in Japan, the tsunami caused some $100 million in damage to California's ports and harbors.

One of California's most destructive tsunamis tsunamis killed a dozen people as it struck the coast of Crescent City in March of 1964. Massive waves leveled much of the community's business district and spurred fires after power lines were broken during the surge.

Earlier this year, tsunami activity caused by an underwater volcano eruption in the Tonga Islands shuttered beaches from San Diego to San Francisco and cause damaged to boats as far away as New Zealand.

January's tsunami activity did not cause widespread damage in California, but it did raise concerns for a damaging event in the future.

Dave Snider, the tsunami warning coordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Center, said it was very unusual for a volcanic eruption to affect an entire ocean basin, and the spectacle was both “humbling and scary.”

READ MORE: CA Tsunami Activity Continues: See Pictures Of Tsunami Aftermath