Tsunamis with waves of 15 metres or more from 1900 to 1949

Map of 6 locations · Worldwide

Between 1900 and 1949, a handful of waves were recorded at heights of 15 metres or more, some raised by offshore earthquakes and some by rock falling into deep water. Each entry is pinned at the source that set the water moving, not at the shore it reached, and draws on the contemporary record: survey reports, run-up surveys made years later, and press accounts of the damage.

Places in this collection

  • 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake — An undersea earthquake near the Aleutian Islands of Alaska on 1 April, at 12:29 GMT, sent waves across the Pacific, striking Unimak Island…
  • 1936 Lituya Bay tsunami — A series of waves swept Lituya Bay in Alaska, with a maximum run-up height of 490 feet recorded in Crillon Inlet at the head of the bay. Th…
  • 1933 Sanriku earthquake — The earthquake struck off the Sanriku coast of the Tohoku region of Honshu, Japan, on 2 March. The tsunami it generated reached 28.7 m at R…
  • April 1923 Kamchatka earthquake and tsunami — The earthquake occurred at 02:31 local time on 14 April off the northern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the USSR, now Russia. Fifteen…
  • 1907 Sumatra earthquake — The shock struck at 05:19:12 UTC with an epicentre close to Simeulue, off Sumatra, and has since been re-estimated at a moment magnitude of…
  • 1905 Lovatnet rockslide tsunami — A rockslide crashed into the lake Lovatnet in Norway and raised a wave that, according to the Geological Survey of Norway, surged several t…

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