Geographic features make Crescent City, California, particularly vulnerable to tsunamis. Much of the small town, located 20 miles south of the Oregon border, is only a few feet above sea level and the crescent shape of the bay amplifies wave intensity. The Mendocino fracture zone, an irregularity in an underwater ridge, is also believed to focus wave action on the community. Since the first tide gauge was installed in Crescent City in 1933, more than 30 tsunamis have occurred there. However, oral histories of local native people and geological evidence suggest…
