News Oceans

Seafloor amber may hold hints of a tsunami 115 million years ago

Formations in the tree resin point to massive waves that sucked a forest into the sea

A slab of brown-gray rick is topped by a seam of golden colored amber. The fossilized tree resin was deposited by a massive tsunami, a new study suggests.

A layer of amber tops a piece of sandstone. These sediments, unearthed from a quarry in Japan, were once on the deep seafloor. Formations in the golden resin hint at ancient tsunamis.

A. Kubota et al./Scientific Reports 2025

By Katherine Kornei

Wavelike patterns in 115-million-year-old amber suggest that a long-ago tsunami inundated what is now northern Japan, researchers report May 15 in Scientific Reports.