Tsunami databases contain general information of historical tsunamis, which provides valuable and fundamental data to tsunami-related researches. Nevertheless, before adopting the information stored in various tsunami databases, users should be familiar with these databases’ individual features due to their inhomogeneity in data storage. To this end, a comprehensive review of the worldwide existing tsunami databases was conducted in this study. Two kinds of existing databases are recognized, i.e. the individual database and the organizational database. The individual tsunami databases are generally simple and descriptive with less information about tsunami and associated earthquake. Update of individual database is also out of date. Nevertheless, the organizational tsunami databases, with the retrieval function and timely update, are more sophisticated with significant research orientated information, upon which we can obtain the detailed characteristics of a specified tsunami event. In addition, a further comparison is made between two main organizational databases, i.e. the databases of NTL/WLD and NGDC/WDS. In which, the number of recorded tsunami wave heights per event and the number of definite tsunami events per decade both witness an apparent increase after 1900s, and the landslide-generated tsunamis are found to gradually increase after 1960s. The total tsunami events per decade fluctuate around one hundred since 1990s, whereas the definite tsunami events per decade experience a linear increase in this period. It turns out that though quite a part of the data in NTL/WLD is referred to NGDC/WDS, they do collect different tsunami events, and even for the same event, their recording datasets are still not consistent with each other. Figuring out the structural features of different databases and unveiling their connections and differences facilitate relevant research for disaster prevention and mitigation.

中文翻译：

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对全球现有海啸数据库的全面审查

海啸数据库包含历史海啸的一般信息，为海啸相关研究提供有价值的基础数据。然而，在采用存储在各种海啸数据库中的信息之前，由于数据存储的不均匀性，用户应该熟悉这些数据库的各个特征。为此，本研究对全球现有的海啸数据库进行了全面审查。现有的数据库有两种，即个人数据库和组织数据库。单个海啸数据库通常简单且具有描述性，有关海啸和相关地震的信息较少。个别数据库的更新也已过时。尽管如此，具有检索功能和及时更新的组织海啸数据库，更复杂，具有重要的研究导向信息，我们可以根据这些信息获得特定海啸事件的详细特征。此外，还对两个主要的组织数据库，即 NTL/WLD 和 NGDC/WDS 的数据库进行了进一步的比较。其中，每个事件记录的海啸波高数和每十年确定的海啸事件数均在 1900 年代后明显增加，而滑坡引发的海啸则在 1960 年代后逐渐增加。自 1990 年代以来，每十年的海啸事件总数在 100 次左右波动，而每十年的确定海啸事件在此期间呈线性增加。事实证明，虽然 NTL/WLD 中有相当一部分数据参考了 NGDC/WDS，但它们确实收集了不同的海啸事件，甚至对于同一事件，他们的记录数据集仍然不一致。弄清楚不同数据库的结构特征，揭示它们之间的联系和差异，有助于防灾减灾的相关研究。