The name was conferred by Lieutenant Palmer RE for Archibald T. Breakenridge RE, a member of his party, during a reconnaissance survey by the Royal Engineers from the north end of Harrison Lake to Four Mile House in the Douglas Road along the Lillooet River in 1859.

Mount Breakenridge is the subject of intensive study by government geologists due to the location of a fracture or shear zone on the mountainside above Harrison Lake.

There are also online precautionary and educational resources available such as suggested safety plans (most of which rely on getting to higher ground before the waves arrive) although in the event of the tsunami occurring, there would likely not be much warning time.

[9] After a destructive event such as the feared tsunami, there would most likely be secondary succession, which is a type of ecological recovery where the area is not totally destroyed and the species that once lived there can eventually return.

Tsunamis are an unstoppable force but people need to be proactive, educated, and prepared to try to lessen the damage and loss through evacuation planning and be ready to assist in recovery after the fact.

[12] People's lives, property, homeland, and financial livelihoods are at risk, as well as the species of the surrounding ecosystem and the landscape itself being in the path of danger.

Depending on how common these species are and what roles they play in the ecosystem, their extinction caused by such a disaster would have a large impact on the way the area's systems functioned.

The next, in 1964, was caused by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake and produced a 4,2 meter (14-foot) wave that completely flooded parts of the towns Hot Springs Cove, Bamfield, and Port Alberni.