Meteotsunamis, or meteorological tsunamis, are water waves generated by an atmospheric disturbance that behave similar to seismic tsunamis in both physical characteristics and disastrous potential. The objective of this dissertation is to characterize Great Lakes meteotsunamis in terms of physical mechanisms as well as historic occurrences and causes. The behavior of meteotsunamis in the Great Lakes is examined through simulation of two notable Lake Michigan meteotsunami events on June 26, 1954 and July 6, 1954. Atmospheric pressure and wind perturbations were found to be essential to explain the magnitude of the wave activity. Edge waves and long waves were generated in both events and the enclosed Lake Michigan basin retained and focused this wave energy, leading to the large event magnitude and long duration. The occurrence of meteotsunamis in the Great Lakes region is quantified at 31 locations from up to 20 years of historical water level records. Meteotsunami height data are fit with the Pareto Type 1 distribution to estimate exceedance probabilities. Meteotsunami size tends to increase along the major axis of the lake. Analysis of radar imagery indicates that meteotsunamis are associated primarily with complex and linear convective storm structures, with complex convective storm structures more prevalent to the west of the region and linear storm structures more prevalent to the east. Meteotsunami events occur primarily in the late spring and mid-summer, which is before the peak convective storm season. Relationships between meteotsunami seasonality and shelf slope suggest that bathymetry may impact the timing of meteotsunamis occurrences throughout the Great Lakes. Overall, the regional-scale analysis of meteotsunamis in the Great Lakes reveals valuable insight into the role of physical and atmospheric setting on meteotsunami occurrence. Finally, a worldwide database of reported meteotsunamis is compiled. Reported meteotsunamis are located primarily in the northern hemisphere in temperate or continental climates and over shallow wide shelfs. Reported meteotsunamis in the Great Lakes share a warm season occurrence peak with the Mediterranean and Northern Europe whereas meteotsunamis in North American East and West Coasts as well as Eastern Asia are reported primarily in the cold season.