The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast

by Bonnie Henderson

The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast is the gripping story of the geological discoveries—and the scientists who uncovered them—that signal the imminence of a catastrophic tsunami on the Northwest Coast.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Geology, Nature, Geography, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2014

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The worn wood bench creaks as I sit down. I’m early by two minutes, Cannon Beach Book Company isn't quite open on this gray day in October. This particular bookstore is a favorite, from local topics to classics. It’s almost in the realm of pilgrimage when near Cannon Beach, Oregon, I have to stop and wander amongst the books.

Several years ago I started a ritual of solitude. Starting with long trips to offload in Death Valley. Alone in my Jeep, following my cousin’s Char and Patrick over less traveled blacktop and dirt roads. It didn’t take long to realize some of my best business decisions or ideas came from solitude. I still seek long Jeep trips alone for this purpose. Now, quarterly weekends at the coast support a need to be with me.

The wind whips raindrops into swirling acrobatics. With the bookstore open, I walk in and start wandering. My only quest is to find something willing to jump off the shelf and dominate my time for a few days. Contemplating current events starts to make my head hurt, so I keep walking. A new novel? No, I have so many sitting at home waiting.

"It has to be something local", thinking to myself.

"No, something on art and photography."

"Maybe I should be a good Mom and look for a local kids book on whales.”

I do a figure eight around the most popular and recommended, stopping at photo essays of the north Oregon Coast. A big blue colored book caught my eye. So did the word “Tsunami.”

Love/hate would be a good descriptor of my relationship with tsunamis. A "relationship" is also a good word. My heart skips when I see the word and then followed by fond memories. Fear of tsunamis sits in my brain on every trip to my cabin at the coast. Would we be able to make it to high ground? Would it even matter?

Ignoring the book, I keep looking. Moving my way to the back of the store, now in the science section, a book on the Geology of Oregon catches my eye. Might be a pattern. The tsunami book with its “blue hour” lighting of a marsh on the front cover, won’t let my curiosity go. No less than three times did I come back to this book. So I bought it.

With temperatures in the mid 50’s and a constant drizzle, I quickly walk to a coffee shop on the corner. With a latte in hand and goose down zipped up, I dive into “The Next Tsunami” by Bonnie Henderson.

This is what a solitude weekend is all about; coffee, books, writing, photography, my thoughts sorting and clarifying.

Tsunamis are a topic I long left behind from my undergraduate time at Portland State University. Except for the healthy fear of. I moved on to other pursuits after graduating but Geology and my time on the coast never left me. Often I’ve thought what life may have been like if I had stayed in the field and pursued Geology.

The sounds of the coffee shop lull me through memories working with graduate students and professors seeking to solve the puzzle of earthquakes, tsunami’s and our Cascadia Subduction Zone. Many days spent slogging in mud pulling sediment cores from boot-sucking mud. Not far from here, one October afternoon in 1995 I’m helping Curt Peterson - Oceanography and Geology Professor at PSU - pull sediment cores for the local news crews to video. At the time, I didn’t realize what we knew about earthquakes and tsunamis were coming to a volcanic head. New discoveries were leading to a clearer picture within the puzzle of plate tectonics. The news crews were there for one of their many news spots about the research we were doing. Local towns, like Seaside, Oregon, were finally taking earthquakes and tsunamis seriously. People were starting to fear, yet, continue to ignore.

On the day of pulling cores for the cameras, Curt Peterson and I pull up a core sample with a loud “thrup.” He hands the sample to me, and I start to walk through the marsh to the roadside. Stepping into what looked like a two-inch stream turned out to be quicksand. I sink to my waist in cold mud. Curt grab my shirt collar to steady me and says, “good job not dropping the sample.” And the news crews recorded the whole thing.

“The Next Tsunami” was precisely what I needed. A reminder of my love for Geology and conducting fieldwork. Hiking through muddy trails and lugging sampling equipment across sticky marshes.

Bonnie Henderson has crafted a great story around a huge topic in the Pacific NW; earthquakes, tsunamis and the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The area off the coast of BC, Washington, Oregon, and Northern California where the most significant earthquake of modern history most likely will come from for our region. Where conditions are perfect for large displacements of water as the earth’s plates collide with each other. Written in a way that doesn’t require a Geology degree.

“The Next Tsunami” is a page-turner. A well-crafted nonfiction story through the eyes of Tom Horning, a Seaside, Oregon, Geologist and the other scientists who fell into this topic. In the neighborhood of John McFee and his sweeping books of geology forming our lands over millennia.

Buy the book on Amazon or from your favorite independent bookstore, of which, there are many across the world. (Cannon Beach Book Company, Powell’s Books are a couple)

[GoldGato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the third book of my Tsunami Hat Trick reading for 2017, following Ghosts Of The Tsunami and Where The Dead Pause, And The Japanese Say Goodbye. Here, the "restless coast" is the Northwest section of the Canadian/U.S. coast known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Historical Japanese records reflect on an orphan tsunami (one that is not associated with a quake felt locally, thus taking most people by surprise) that hit the eastern coast of Japan in 1700. As the book slowly reveals, the huge wave was due to a super-duper earthquake off the Northwest coast which wiped out native Indian villages throughout what is now Washington, Oregon, and the top of California. Turns out these are quakes that are even bigger than the huge 2011 Tohoku one AND occur with regularity around every 300 or so years. And overdue.

Bonnie Henderson approaches this by revealing layer by layer of the mystery. While the Indians knew well of the event, scientists were clueless. Using the nasty 1964 Alaska earthquake and its subsequent tsunami as the introduction, the author introduces us to each geologist, seismologist, paleoseismologist, and lots of other 'ists' who come to understand that when the next Cascadia Subduction quake hits, it will be the greatest natural disaster in North American history.

I enjoyed the research, but it was a bit geeky for me, as there is no recent disaster to highlight. Instead of victims' stories, we learn what needs to be done to prepare for the coming catastrophe. Basically, Japan is the nation devoted to preparing for subduction quakes/tsunamis...yet still was unprepared for 2011. If they can't do it right, there's no way the Canadians and Americans can ever be fully prepared. An interesting read, although I started to lose track of the many experts highlighted throughout the book.

Living over and next to and near fault lines my entire life, I was surprised to learn that the California fault lines can never produce the super-duper quakes that a subduction quake can. That's because the latter is actually one continental plate moving under another, as opposed to moving side-by-side. So, these quakes may not occur as often, but when they do, they last long and produce complete devastation. It's going to be a very big wave.

Book Season = Winter (apocalypse)

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bonnie Henderson brings the science and the actual experience of earthquakes and tsunamis to life. She weaves together interesting lessons on the science of earthquakes with the biography of a geologist with a strong personal connection to coastal Oregon. Tom Horning experienced the 1964 tsunami in Seaside, Oregon as a 10 year old and to this day is active in trying to save lives in the tsunami zones in and around Seaside. Seeing many events through his eyes makes them all the more real.

Tsunami tells the story of scientists and the public learning of the the Cascadia Fault which is located along not far off shore from Eureka, California north to British Columbia. I've lived in the is area all my adult life and am old enough to remember when Oregon did not appear to be at risk for earthquakes. Ms. Henderson really brings the geography and the people to life. Her chapters on the accessing the knowledge of the native people in Humboldt County were excellent.

Bonnie Henderson is an excellent storyteller. Even though I already knew most of the events around the discovery of the Cascadia Fault, I was caught up in Ms. Henderson's telling of it.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Henderson has done a superlative job of gathering the historical events, facts and figures concerning the unfolding science behind the discovery of the Cascadia Subduction Zone and its possible future effects on the PacNW, she novelized it into a story thereby making the book fiction. She has a disclaimer that says she has the permission of the scientists and other involved to essentially make stuff up about what they said and did at any given moment. It's a highly-researched historical novel and, frankly, an overly-padded one at that. My request? "Just facts, m'am."

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads like a good novel - the history of how scientists have discovered the inevitability of a heavy duty earthquake and tsunami on the Oregon coast. How they dated the last giant tsunami in 1700 is downright fascinating. I loved this book. Bonnie Henderson is a Eugenean.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a bookstore in Cannon Beach, Oregon, I bought this book for a friend who enjoys nonfiction science reading as a thank you for feeding my cat in my absence. Without flipping through it, I got home, worried it would be a dry tome, and gave her a bottle of wine instead. After a few months on my to- read shelf, I opened it. THIS IS A GOOD BOOK! well researched but written in a style that almost turns it in to a novel while remaining very true to the science involved.
Until the Alaska earthquake of 1964, scientists didn't really understand the mechanics of quakes. Hours after that quake a young boy in Seaside, Oregon, woke up to find several feet of water sloshing around his yard. Slowly researchers, many from Oregon State University, UO, and U of Washington, began to find evidence that the Oregon coast had been hit with several devastating tsunamis before recorded time, and would be again.
Two sources of informnation that fascinated me in particular were 1. Japanese scholars had painstakingly recorded tsunamis caused by quakes in that country going back into antiquity. The information made it possible for modern scientists to put dates to the evidence they were uncovering by collecting core samples from earth on the Oregon coast. 2. Coastal Indians had a rich oral history of incidents that apparently described tsunamis, although the stories had been treated as quaint myths, not historic fact.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before the 1960's, scientists had no idea that there were tectonic plates rubbing & crushing and plowing underneath each other on the earth. It wasn't until the 1990's that scientists became aware of a major (mag. 9) earthquake and tsunami that occurred on the west coast in 1700. This realization was followed by the discovery that the Cascade Subduction Fault lies offshore of the west coast from Vancouver Island to the tip of California.

This is the fascinating story of geology, people, earthquakes, tsunamis, destruction and the interplay of brilliant human minds trying to come up with answers and ways to predict geologic events. It is not dry and boring. It is not full of incomprehensible scientific terminology. It's eminently readable for the lay person and chock full of interesting information and personal stories. I highly recommend it if you live on the west coast!

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another good book on the tsunami hazards from the Cascadia Subduction Zone. I knew a lot of the players and info, but there was still more to learn. I started this Monday night and finished it just after midnight on Wednesday morning... if I hadn't worked on Tuesday, I would have finished it early afternoon since I sped through this one. I live at the southern end of the Cascadia, so this is intensely personal to me. I always want to learn more since I believe more knowledge is better. I thought it was interesting that the Cannon Beach teachers and staff all became ham radio operators and keep radios with them. It was good to see they have CERTs in their areas. This is a good reminder to restock my emergency kits and get one back in my car along with my CERT gear.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long fairly slow read. But mostly this seemed slow due to competition for my time while on a family vacation. Much of this also felt like review - this was definitely not the first or second book I've read on this subject. But this one felt more localized, more personal. Most any place mentioned in the book - especially along the Oregon North Coast - was a place I'd been too. I made me want to slow down and think about where the story was taking place. But still, science, mystery, travel, history - there was a lot to like in this one and it was both detailed and easy to follow.

[K Flemson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book dragged on and on!

[Jeanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much information. Enjoyed the writing style and learned a little of geology.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reading for the science minded about the subject. Transitions between chapters are bit awkward at times but I'm glad I read this.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book, a good intro to how geologists understand and interpret data about plate tectonics, and of course, what the threat could be to the Washington and Oregon Coast.

The book jumps around a lot, focusing on one main geologist who experienced a tsunami in his small Oregon Coast community in 1964 due to a distant earthquake. Then it jumps to theories of plate tectonics, then to how an understanding of the subduction zone just off the Oregon/Washington/Canadian coast developed, and then to the oral histories of the Native Americans that describe catastrophic tsunamis.

A couple of interesting points for me from the book:
* How resistant the establishment of science is to new ideas. I've seen this in many other ares where scientists can be very territorial about what they believe to be true, only changing their minds when the evidence becomes overwhelming. Some of the early proponents of plate tectonics in the 40s, 50s, and 60s were dismissed, rejected, and marginalized. That is, until there finally became so much evidence that the scientific establishment had to accept it. So much for scientific inquiry and openness.

* For many, many years, the thought in building and settling the land was that California was an earthquake prone area and that Oregon and Washington were safe. There are no recent earthquakes in that area so no problem, right? But in studying marsh core samples, geologists were surprised over and over again by what they found. Instead of layer after layer of peat, like in East Coast marshes, they found layers of peat broken up periodically by sand and dirt. Over time and collaboration, they were able to pin this down to periodic catastrophic earthquakes and resultant tsunamis.

* Evidently, the coast is due for another one, and it will be brutal. In past earthquake/tsunamis, the waves reached as high as 50 feet, and the Native American stories tell of entire villages being wiped out. One legend is told of a village that lost everyone but a brother and sister. When they could find no one else around them, they married and began to build up their people again.

* It's hard to prepare for an event that IS going to happen, but no one knows if it will be in 1 year, 10, or 300. It's hard to get people to feel urgency to move schools that would no doubt be wiped out, along with all the children in them, or to rebuild bridges. It helped move things along when the Christmas Day Indonesian quake and tsunami happened, as well as when the Japan one came.

[John Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't until the 1970s that we began to put together the pieces of what caused tsunamis, and that the Pacific Northwest was one of the prime locations for the subduction earthquake that will trigger one. This book traces the history of how the pieces were put together. The two critical pieces were acceptance of plate tectonics in the mid-to-late 1960s, and studying the big Alaskan quake in 1964 - some barnacles were raised above the water line and died, others were subducted and drowned. Then they discovered that the same alternate layering of sand and mud deposits covered the bays all along the Washington and Oregon coasts, similar the the mudflats covered with sand in bays affected by the Alaskan quake. Then they looked matched growth rings and did carbon dating of tree stumps along the Oregon and Washington beaches and bays to estimate when they died - to learn they all died at about the same time, probably because of salt intrusion. Finally, they looked at the Japanese record of tsunamis, to find that there was a tsunami that wasn't preceded by a local (Japanese) quake but that matched the estimate of the last quake along the Pacific Northwest. Indian legends that previously hadn't made sense were finally understood to tell of a large shaking and collapsing huts followed by rising waters that killed many of their ancestors. This was all told journalistic style to add a human dimension and enliven the story.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making science palatable to the non-scientific reader is not easy, but Henderson has the knack. The Next Tsunami tells the story of how a group of scientists discovered the silent danger of earthquakes and tsunamis along the Oregon and Washington coast. The book begins in 1964 as 10-year-old Tom Horning, living on the shore in Seaside, Oregon, experiences the after-effects of the massive Alaska quake. Giant waves wreaked havoc around his home and neighborhood, as well as other places along the coast. The event led to his career as a geologist specializing in earthquakes and tsunamis. The book follows Horning and other scientists as they begin to learn that an even great danger lies off the Northwest coast in the form of the Cascadia Subduction Fault. Studying the land and Native American stories, they learn that huge tsunamis have struck before and will undoubtedly strike again, wiping out entire coastal cities. The last “big one” was in 1700. The next one could be any day. It’s a fascinating book, especially for those of us living in the areas Henderson writes about. It’s not an easy read, but totally worth the effort.

[Michelle Morrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the process that led to the discovery and acceptance of plate tectonics in general and specifically the subduction zone earthquakes, leading to tsunamis and activity centered along the Cascadia Subduction Zone that runs down the Pacific NW coast.

Told through the scientists and laymen who helped forge the theories and track the earthquakes and tsunamis through the ages via many different angles, from soil cores to ancient tales of the seas rising up in anger, with the personal focus of one man's quest to get his home of Seaside, Oregon ready for the inevitable next tsunami.

I was surprised that there was no mention of the Nisqually earthquake of 2001, which I think should have been at least touched upon, but other than that, a mass of information on the how/what/why/when of tsunamis and earthquakes.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have any interest in science, geology, native american culture, the Pacific Northwest - read this book. Even if you don't have those interests - read this book. Bonnie Henderson does a magnificent job of telling the story of the science behind the development and acceptance of tectonic plate theory. It is written in the style of John McPhee, introducing you to the people involved while explaining (clearly) the science behind what they are trying to uncover. And then of course - as the tale unfolds - we find out that the Native American cultures of the Pacific Northwest coast knew all of this already.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I live well above sea-level and well inland. Lots of interesting science on the emergence of plate tectonics and the discovery of the Cascadia subduction zone. Much of the book centers on a geologist living in the community of Seaside, OR, which would be in extreme danger from a Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. There were a lot of characters, and I had a little trouble keeping track of a few of them, but all in all, very entertaining and informative.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a John McPhee fan of long standing Ms. Henderson's book was a wonderful addition to my 'Geology Lite' collection. With family members involved in coastal Oregon life it was doubley fascinating. To a larger audience, the question of the intersection of disaster science and long established living patterns must be addressed. Think Katrina, S. Storm Sandy, rising sea levels, Etc. Etc. BTW 'Preppers' will love it!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast" by Bonnie Henderson was an eye-opener. I hadn't realized the seriousness of the risk of a tsunami off of Vancouver Island, and all down the coast to California. I quite enjoyed the chapters on Tom Horning's life. A biography within a book that was decidedly geology oriented humanized the science and anchored the history sections to a real life: someone who lives with the real risk of being swept away by a tsunami. Very well done.

[Karen Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for those interested in learning more about the history (on a personal account) of the earthquake/tsunami activity on the Pacific coast. There has been more recent discussion about earthquakes since ours in July, but to truly grasp the scope of what we are dealing with this book is a good indication.

[Kate Belt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned a lot, especially about the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the value of paying attention to the oral histories of our indigenous citizens.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very informative and interesting.

[Shalini · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice (long) summary of earthquakes and the recent history of figuring out the 4Ws of it. TA light science read. The book is a little verbose to my taste but I see where this might have seemed necessary. All the painstaking efforts by so many people patiently for years in different parts of the world just so that we will be better equipped to save more people in the event of a catastrophe is described in detail. It gives us a glimpse of what it takes to understand natural phenomena. The material is laid out in layman terms so it's easy to understand the content.

[Wendi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic read, very engaging

[Nancy Davison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating study, for those of us living in the Northwest, of the history of tsunamis in this area, and the likelihood of a huge one coming in the near future. Beautifully researched, written about the people who have done the work of ferreting out the details of the past events, and highlighting what has and what hasn't been done to prepare us for the next big one, this book is one to be read, re-read and pondered.

When we go to the coast and walk on the beach, we keep an eye out for where the cliffs would be easiest to climb, and how we'd hoist the dog up!