Large distant earthquakes in the past have generated tsunamis that caused significant damage and deaths in Hawaii. In 1946, a magnitude-7.9 Aleutian Islands, Alaska earthquake generated a tsunami that killed 159 people in the State of Hawaii, with a maximum wave run-up height of 16 meters (55 feet) measured at Pololu Valley on the Island of Hawaii.

A tsunami advisory was also issued for parts of Alaska and the entire West Coast after a powerful earthquake off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.