How much warning do you have before a tsunami hits?

Following devastating Pacific-wide tsunamis in 1946 and 1960, a Pacific tsunami warning system was set up in Hawaii. Now similar warning systems operate in Alaska, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. read more

Depending on the size of the initial quake, and the expected tsunami, ciuoked with your location (are you near the quake zone or far away), you could have minutes warning (12–20 minutes) fir the first wave (tsunamis often come in sets), to a couple of hours (if the tsunami was for example generated in Japan and you live in Hawaii). read more

It depends. You can only be alerted to a tsunami after it is triggered. So the amount of warning time depends on how far away it is triggered. When the tsunami struck Japan in 2012 it was initiated right off the coast, so most people had less than 40 minutes of warning. read more