Earthquakes are only one of several ways that a tsunami can be generated. Tsunamis can also be caused by events such as underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions, land slumping into the ocean, meteorite impacts, or even the weather when the atmospheric pressure changes very rapidly.he most common cause of tsunamis is an undersea earthquake that results in a sudden rise or fall of a section of the earth's crust under or near the ocean. This earthquake creates an explosive vertical motion that can displace the overlying water column, creating a rise or fall in the level of the ocean above.