Tsunami Clues Trapped in Ancient Amber: A 115-Million-Year-Old Mystery

“Tsunami” records usually vanish with time — their traces swept away by nature’s erosion. But in a groundbreaking discovery, scientists believe they’ve uncovered signs of a tsunami that crashed through a forest 115 million years ago, not in the usual sediment or rock, but in an unexpected source: ancient seafloor amber.

Researchers studying sediments from a sand quarry in Hokkaido, Japan, have found oddly shaped amber fragments interspersed with layers of sandstone. The area was once submerged under the Pacific Ocean during the Early Cretaceous period. What caught scientists’ attention were flame-like structures within the amber, twisting, wavelike forms suggesting a dramatic underwater upheaval.

Aya Kubota, a geologist at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, led the research on the tsunami that reported the findings in ‘Scientific Reports’ on May 15. “We found a weird form of amber,” Kubota noted. And it wasn’t just the shape – it was the story these forms seemed to tell.

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Amber typically hardens within days when exposed to air, forming as sticky resin oozes from trees. The presence of soft amber on the seafloor, interlocked with heavier sandstone, suggests a sudden and powerful event that tore resin-coated wood from land and submerged it rapidly before it could fully harden. The flame structures indicate a denser material — the sandstone — settling into the soft amber, creating wave-like impressions.

This kind of vertical sediment mixing is often a hallmark of high-energy events, such as tsunamis. Adding to the mystery, scientists also found fossilized wood over a meter long and other plant debris embedded in the same layers. These findings, the researchers argue, point to the possibility of multiple tsunamis dragging entire forest sections into the sea.

“It’s novel to think about using amber as a tsunami marker,” says Carrie Garrison-Laney, a tsunami researcher at NOAA, who wasn’t involved in the study. However, she also urges caution. “We need more data to be sure. What happens to this amber deposit 100 meters away? And could resin really stay soft long enough in cold seawater to form such shapes?”

Despite the questions, the discovery opens a fascinating new frontier: using fossilized resin to uncover long-lost geological catastrophes. If future studies validate the team’s hypothesis, amber could become an unlikely yet powerful tool for identifying ancient tsunamis far beyond the reach of traditional sediment analysis.

For now, these shimmering orange fragments lie as a reminder that even after 115 million years, nature still has stories left to tell – if we know where to look.