This text relates a scientific detective story through clues from both sides of the Pacific. In the year 1700, a mysterious tsunami flooded fields and washed away houses in Japan. It arrived without the warning that a nearby earthquake usually provides. Samurai, merchants, and villagers recorded the event, but nearly three centuries would pass before discoveries in North America revealed the tsunami's source, a large earthquake off the west coast of Canada and the United States. Educational levels: Middle school, High school, Undergraduate lower division
