<p>Earthquakes are a major threat in the Pacific Islands, where most people still live in traditional villages. This is why stakeholders are paying particular attention to disaster mitigation strategies that incorporate culturally rooted tools of resilience. In particular, recent studies increasingly highlight the wealth of important environmental information conveyed through indigenous knowledge. This knowledge is passed down orally and is often embedded in compelling narratives, which may take the form of myth. Indeed, myth can sometimes serve as a narrative vehicle for codifying the memory of natural disasters, as well as for processing and transmitting that experience. We will therefore explore the data provided by oral tradition regarding earthquakes, focusing in particular on several significant myths. This will allow us to demonstrate that even in the absence of a specialized vocabulary, populations affected by recurrent and devastating phenomena have developed functional ways both to preserve the memory of these events and to provide an explanation for them. Through the example of the Pacific, we can observe how myth functions as a tool for understanding how the observation of a natural event leads to its emotional and cultural recovery, and to its narrative elaboration.</p>