Mapping and stratigraphic investigations of back barrier, open-coastal plain sites have been used to establish minimum inundation distances and wave heights of tsunami produced by great subduction zone earthquakes in the central Cascadia margin. Cascadia tsunami deposits have been reported for many coseismic subsidence events in bay marsh settings where tidal-channel features focus tsunami energy. Variable magnitude (8.5±0.5 Mw), frequency (500±300 yr recurrence), and rupture geometry produce widely varying computer model outcomes for Casdcadia tsunami inundation. The results presented in this thesis provide specific quantitative data regarding tsunami inundation at the open coast. Anomalous sand sheets that have been characterized consist of well-sorted beach sand that fine up-section. The thickness of the deposits vary from 45 em to 0.2 em, and thin in the landward direction. Many of the sand layers include detrital caps. One to three detritus and mud lamina are intra-layered in the deposits. Marine diatoms and bromine, a marine tracer, increase in concentration at each of the sand layers.