Tsunami Stories: Learning from Oral Histories from Around the World

This activity can be used for undergraduate introductory geology, geologic hazards, oceanography, or earth science courses. The courses can be for majors or non-majors.

I have taught this activity in small (24 maximum) introductory geology and geological hazards classes, both in person and synchronous online through Zoom.

No prior tsunami knowledge is assumed.

I teach in Hawaiʻi where tsunamis are a major hazard. This activity is an engaging way to introduce students to tsunami science and safety. For an introductory geology class, this activity leads into 1-2 additional days of studying tsunami science. For a geologic hazards class, this is the start to a multi-day tsunami unit.

The goals of this activity include:

• Students will learn how oral histories pass information about tsunami science and safety from generation to generation.
• Students will think and start to learn about tsunami characteristics. For example, many stories describe multiple tsunami waves during the event.
• Students will think and start to learn about natural warning signs of a tsunami. Stories can describe the sea receding or feeling an earthquake before the tsunami.
• Students will think and start to learn about tsunami safety. Stories usually share tsunami safety information.

The goals of this activity include:

• Students will analyze an indigenous tsunami story for information about tsunami warning signs, characteristics and safety.
• Students will compare several indigenous tsunami stories for information about tsunami characteristics and safety.
• Students will then formulate hypotheses about tsunami characteristics, tsunami warning signs, and tsunami safety using information from indigenous tsunami stories.
• If extending the activity: Later, after learning about current tsunami knowledge, students can compare information in indigenous tsunami stories to current tsunami theory and critically evaluate why the information in some indigenous stories are different than others.
• If extending the activity: Students will learn how indigenous information can be transferred to future generations and enhance hazard management.

The goals of this activity include:

• Students will work collaboratively.
• Students will teach classmates what they learned about an indigenous tsunami story.
• Students will orally communicate information.

In this jigsaw activity, students read and analyze traditional indigenous oral histories about tsunamis to learn about tsunami science and safety.

First, students are put into groups. Each group studies one story. After they have finished analyzing their assigned story, new groups are formed, with at least one representative for each story. Students summarize their assigned story and then compare them to see how information about tsunami characteristics and safety can be transmitted from generation to generation through oral histories.

This activity leads into future instruction on tsunami science and safety. Lessons from the stories that students read can later be integrated into lessons on modern scientific understanding of tsunamis (such as causes and characteristics) and tsunami safety (natural warning signs).

There are a couple of ways that this activity can be extended:

1. Instructors can tie this lesson into hazard management. Students learn that disaster management personnel are using traditional knowledge to improve local hazard preparations.
This lesson can be extended by discussing the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. In Simeulue Island, oral traditions informed generations that feeling an earthquake and observing receding water were signs that a tsunami would quickly arrive and to immediately move to higher ground. Although close to the epicenter of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, only seven out of approximately 75,000 people on the island died. Similarly, oral histories saved many Moken people from the tsunami. Here are some links discussing Simeulue Island, the Moken people, and disaster preparedness:

• Here are some links discussing Simelue Island, its oral traditions, and the 2004 tsunami:
  • Here is an article.
  • Here is another article.
• Here are some links describing the importance of oral histories in tsunami safety focusing on the Moken people and the 2004 tsunami and the problems that they face today:
  • Here is an article.
  • Here is another article.
  • Here is a third article.

2. This knowledge can be integrated with current scientific understandings of tsunamis.
Students can compare information from indigenous tsunami stories about characteristics, warning signs, and safety to current scientific tsunami knowledge. Are there similarities? Are there any differences?

After learning about current scientific tsunami knowledge, students can evaluate information in their indigenous tsunami stories. Why might there be differences in the descriptions or characteristics of a tsunami? Why might there be differences in warning signs of a tsunami? Why might there be differences in damage from a tsunami? Why might there be differences in tsunami safety information?

Student handout and links for the tsunami activity (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 19kB Jul6 21)
Additional tsunami references.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 21kB Apr6 22)

This activity is used as an introduction to studying tsunamis. From this activity, students learn how tsunamis have been observed around the world and how this information has been preserved in oral histories. They also start to learn about some of the characteristics and warning signs of tsunamis, such as a tsunami is more than one wave and the sea can (but doesn't always) recede before the tsunami arrives. Later lessons discuss the causes and nature of tsunamis, as well as tsunami safety.

The instructor can help lead students in small groups or as a class through the questions. For example, the instructor can help students make hypothesis about what some characteristics of a tsunami are and if they are always the same. The same can be done for warning signs.

Students may need help differentiating between what happened before the tsunami (potential warning signs) and what happened during the tsunami (characteristics of the tsunami) in the stories.

The activity worksheet can be graded for accuracy, analysis of information, and comparative observations. Students can be evaluated for analyzing their story, synthesizing information from multiple stories, and developing hypotheses about tsunami.

If this activity is completed as an online discussion board forum, the discussion entries can be assessed for accuracy, analysis, comparative observations, and developing hypotheses about tsunami.

Alternately, students can be graded on participation: actively participating in the analysis and discussion of the indigenous story, actively participating in comparing the stories, orally communicating information to the class, collaboratively working together as a group in a positive manner, and actively participating to develop hypotheses about tsunami or questions about tsunami that they would like to learn.

For further reading about tsunami science and safety, students can read the following OER textbook chapter. The following link provides information on tsunamis that students can read as homework after this introductory activity. Click to view or download an OER tsunami reading. This textbook chapter is intended for introductory earth science students. No science background is required. It can be used for major or non-major classes. Not only does it explain what a tsunami is and how they form, but it also provides very important safety information.

If instructors would like to connect this activity to disaster management, they can have students study the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Oral traditions saved the lives of many people. Here are two examples (these links are also provided above):

• Here are some links discussing Simelue Island, its oral traditions, and the 2004 tsunami:
  • Here is an article.
  • Here is another article.
• Here are some links describing the importance of oral histories in tsunami safety focusing on the Moken people and the 2004 tsunami and the problems that they face today:
  • Here is an article.
  • Here is another article.