October 31, 1076 Tsunami: Guangdong Province, South China Sea

Name: October 31, 1076 Tsunami: Guangdong Province, South China Sea
Start: 1076-10-31
Location: Guangdong Province, South China Sea

October 31, 1076 · Deaths: few · Very doubtful tsunami

A tsunami of unknown cause began at Guangdong Province, South China Sea on October 31, 1076. Its effects were recorded at 1 place.

Where the waves reached

The source (white) and every runup with a place, colored by the water height recorded there. A ring is a runup NCEI marks doubtful.

Under 1 m
1 to 3 m
3 to 10 m
10 to 30 m
30 m and more
Height not recorded

Tsunami warnings in force

Travel times

How long the first wave took to reach each part of the ocean, one line for each hour up to 24, estimated from the source and the depth of the sea.

The travel times are computed in your browser, which needs JavaScript.

1 to 4 hours
5 to 6 hours
7 to 14 hours
15 hours and more

Computed in your browser the way NOAA’s own travel time maps are: the wave travels at the square root of gravity times the depth, over NOAA’s ETOPO1 depths averaged to a 10 arc-minute grid. Checked against NOAA NCEI’s maps for 21 tsunamis over the first 24 hours, these lines fall within 10 minutes of NCEI’s at half the points compared and within 52 minutes at 9 in 10. They give when the first wave could arrive, not how high it is; bays, harbors and island chains finer than the grid can see it later. Not for use in a warning: see tsunami.gov.

The tsunami

Date: October 31, 1076
Source: Guangdong Province, South China Sea
Cause: Unknown
Runups recorded: 1
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 1
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Very doubtful tsunami
Source location: 23.000° N, 117.000° E

The toll

Deaths: Few (about 1 to 50)
Damage: Limited (under about $1 million)
Houses destroyed: Few (about 1 to 50)

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:

1076, October 31, validity 1. In China, tidal sea waves were recorded on the coast of Chaoang in the province of Kwangtung [Guangdong] (South China Sea). Homes were destroyed and people died (according to the history of Zong State). A doubtful tsunami. These were probably waves of storm origin.

Reference #150:

1076, October 31, validity 1. Kwantung, S. China Sea. Chan Yang, Kwantang. Probably storm surge.

Reference #11906 lists as low ‘credibility’ event.

Every runup

Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.

Where	Country	Km from source	Water height, m	Inland, m	Measured by	First wave, UTC	Deaths
Chaoang, Kwangtung	China				Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1076 The 1000s Tsunamis of China This day in weather history Alerts in force

Sources

Tsunami events and runups from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI tsunami event 91.