1524 Tsunami: Dabul (Dabhel), India
A tsunami caused by an earthquake began at Dabul (Dabhel), India in 1524.
Where the waves reached
The source of the tsunami. No runup with a place is recorded for it.
- Under 1 m
- 1 to 3 m
- 3 to 10 m
- 10 to 30 m
- 30 m and more
- Height not recorded
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
- 1524
- Source
- Dabul (Dabhel), India
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- The earthquake
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Questionable tsunami
- Source location
- 17.000° N, 73.200° E
The toll
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
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.
1524 - Dabul, India. Similarly the arrival of Vasco de Gama's fleet in 1524 coincided with a violent sea-quake and tsunami that caused alarm at Dabul. Note that this Portuguese port at latitude 17 deg 34 min on the Malabar Coast is unrelated to Debil above. This could have been a local event, but since it was not reported onshore it could have been the tsunami from a remote earthquake that occurred along the Makran or Gujarat coastlines. Such accounts are thus of fragmentary value in quantifying earthquake locations and sizes... Maps in 1690 and 1740 show Debil near the current location of Karachi. Other maps show it on a distributary of the Indus. (reference #4084).
1524, Dabul, India. Tsunami occurred, but no earthquake was felt - this event was probably local and did not affect Arabia. (reference #4083)
An earthquake occurred during 1524 A.D. off the coast of Dabhol, Maharashtra and a resulting large tsunami caused considerable alarm to the Portuguese fleet that was assembled in the area. (reference #2771)
1524 A.D., 17 N, 73.2 E. An earthquake occurred during 1524 A.D. off the coast of Dabhol, Maharashtra and a resulting large tsunami caused considerable alarm to the Portuguese fleet that was assembled in the area. (reference #6425)
Probable tsunami. According to Rastogi and Jaiswal (2006), an earthquake occurred during 1524 AD off the coast of Dabhol, and the resulting large tsunami caused considerable damage to a Portuguese fleet that was assembled in the area. (reference #12789)
Kerr (1824; p. 445): "...While in the Gulf of Cambaya, in the dead calm, the ships were tossed about in so violent a manner that all on board believed themselves in imminent danger of perishing and began to consider how they might escape. One man leapt over-board, thinking to escape by swimming, but was drowned; and such as lay sick of fevers were cured by the freight. The viceroy, who perceived that the commotion was perceived by the effects of an earthquake called aloud to his people, ‘‘courage my friends, for the sea trembles from the fear of you who are on it…". (reference #12786)
More
Every tsunami in 1524The 1500sTsunamis of IndiaThe earthquakeAlerts 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 3648.