Significant earthquakes of 1855

October 22, 1855 Earthquake: San Francisco, California, United States

October 22, 1855

An earthquake struck San Francisco, California, United States on October 22, 1855 at 03:45 UTC. It caused a tsunami.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date
October 22, 1855
Time
03:45 UTC
Place
San Francisco, California, United States
Epicenter
37.800° N, 122.400° W
Region
North America and Hawaii

The toll

The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this earthquake.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

1855, October 21, 7:45 p.m. local time [Oct 21, 03:45 UTC]. Validity 1. Trask [1856, p. 88 (ref #1616)] reports a strong earthquake in San Francisco felt particularly in homes near the shore. "There was much commotion in the water a few minutes preceding the shock [emphasis added], which caused several vessels to have heavily at their hawsers and cables." There was no disturbance recorded on the Fort Point marigram or mention found in the San Francisco evening Post Bulletin for October 21, 22, or 23. The fact that the "commotion" (not "wave") was reported to have been observed before the earthquake is an additional problem. This report is almost certainly a mis-dated entry for October 21, 1854, 7:35 P.M. local time. (reference #237).

1855, October 21, 19:45 local time [Oct 22, 3:45 UTC]. There was a strong earthquake at San Francisco. Homes situated on the shore felt peculiar tremors. Ships riding at anchor were dragged with their anchors by a current for several minutes before the shock; the surface of the sea was very agitated [Perry, 1857, (ref #3336); Holden, 1898, (ref#2967); Townley, Allen, 1939, (ref#2993)] (reference #415)

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

  1. #3336 Perrey, Alexis M. (1857-1859). Documents sur les Tremblements de Terre Phenomenes Volcaniques aux Moluques. Part I, Groupe D'Amboine. Part II, Groupe de Banda. Part II, Groupe de Ternate. Societe d'emulation du departement des Vosges, Epinal. Annales. [The Iles Moluques are now called Moluccas, or Maluku Islands, an archipelago in Indonesia.]
  2. #2967 Holden, Edwin S. (1898). A Catalogue of Earthquakes on the Pacific Coast, 1769-1897. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection, vol. 37, no. 1087, 253 p.
  3. #2993 Townley, Sidney D. and Maxwell W. Allen (1939). Descriptive Catalog of Earthquakes of the Pacific Coast of the United States, 1769 to 1928. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 29, no.1, January. Includes information for California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. 297 pages.
  4. #415 Soloviev, S.L., and Ch.N. Go (1975). A catalogue of tsunamis on the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean [dates include 1513-1968]. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Nauka Publishing House, Moscow, 204 p. [Canadian Translation of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences no. 5078, 1984, translation available from Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A OS2, 293 p.]
  5. #1616 Trask, John B. (1856). Untitled paper on earthquakes in California from 1812 to 1855, Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Science, San Francisco, California, vol. 1, no. 2, p. 84-86.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1855The 1800sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 10017.