May 28, 1938 Earthquake: E. Hokkaido Island, Japan
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck E. Hokkaido Island, Japan on May 28, 1938 at 16:42 UTC, 20 km below the surface. It killed 1 person, counting the tsunami it caused.
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
- May 28, 1938
- Time
- 16:42 UTC
- Place
- E. Hokkaido Island, Japan
- Magnitude
- 6.1 (Ms)
- Focal depth
- 20 km (12 mi)
- Tsunami
- Yes: the tsunami it caused
- Epicenter
- 43.600° N, 144.300° E
- Country
- Japan
- Region
- East Asia
The toll
- Deaths
- 1 with its tsunami and other effects
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million) with its tsunami and other effects
- Houses destroyed
- 7 with its tsunami and other effects
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
Reference #414:
1938, May 29, 1;42 local time. There was an earthquake near Kuttyaro Lake on Hokkaido Island. There was much destruction on the western coast of the lake. One person died. A tsunami up to 90 cm high was observed in the lake.
Watanabe (1968): 28.V; 16h42m; 43.6 N., 144.3 E.; 20 km; M=6, m=-1.
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #150 Iida, Kumizi (1984). Catalog of tsunamis in Japan and its neighboring countries. Aichi Institute of Technology, Yachigusa, Yakusa-cho, Toyota-shi, 470-03, Japan, 52 p.
- #414 Soloviev, S.L., and Ch.N. Go (1974). A catalogue of tsunamis on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean [dates include 173-1968. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Nauka Publishing House, Moscow, 439 p. [Canadian Translation of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences no. 5077, 1984, translation available from Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A OS2, 447 p.]
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- March 4, 1952, Hokkaido, Japan
- June 17, 1973, Hokkaido Island, Japan
- January 15, 1993, Hokkadio, Kushiro, Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan
- March 22, 1894, Off Coast of Honshu, Japan
- March 5, 1956, NE. Hokkaido Island, Japan
- November 28, 2004, Bekkai, Kushiro, Nemouro, Hokkaido, Japan
- December 6, 2004, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan
- August 11, 1961, SE. Hokkaido Island, Japan
- May 1, 1839, SE. Hokkaido Island, Japan
- November 18, 1896, Kuril Islands, Russia
- November 15, 1961, SE. Hokkaido Island, Japan
- December 25, 1900, Kuril Islands, Russia
- June 13, 1893, Nemuro, Japan
- April 23, 1962, SE. Hokkaido Island, Japan
- March 18, 1904, Hokkaido, Japan
More
Significant earthquakes of 1938The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1938Recent 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 6321.