September 1, 1543 Tsunami: Cumana, Venezuela

Name: September 1, 1543 Tsunami: Cumana, Venezuela
Start: 1543-09-01
Location: Cumana, Venezuela

September 1, 1543 · Deaths: few · Very doubtful tsunami

A tsunami caused by an earthquake began at Cumana, Venezuela on September 1, 1543. Its effects were recorded at 2 places.

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: September 1, 1543
Source: Cumana, Venezuela
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: The earthquake
Runups recorded: 2
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Very doubtful tsunami
Source location: 10.700° N, 64.100° W

The toll

Deaths: Few (about 1 to 50) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage: Limited (under about $1 million); Severe (about $5 to $25 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it

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.

Reports included accounts of waves and a sea that was much higher than the land. This was probably due to subsidence. The city of Cumana, Venezuela, was destroyed, possibly by an earthquake. (reference #537)

O'Loughlin and Lander (2003) resenan un tsunami dudoso en Cumana, península de Araya y Cubagua. Vila (1948) afirma que no existio tal evento en 1543 y que el equivoco se fundamenta en la relacion hecha por el cronista Juan de Castellanos, quien llego a Cubagua en el ano 1541, justo a tiempo para ser testigo de la tormenta ocurrida el día de navidad, cuya memoria pondria por escrito en 1589, confundiendo, no solo las fechas sino también los hechos. El relato que finalmente consigna Castellanos, ha sido erroneamente interpretado como un sismo tsunamigenico que ocasiono la destruccion de Nueva Cadiz en 1543 (Castellanos, 1851). Asi mismo, Grases et al. (1999) descartan la ocurrencia de dicho evento y senalan: "La tesis de la destruccion por causa de un huracán parece la más pausible, dada la ubicacion de la isla de Cubagua en un area que se encuentra en la ruta que han seguido fenomenos atmosféricos de la misma naturaleza". Cabe destacar que la busqueda en fuentes primarias no ha arrojado ningun resultado sobre este supuesto terremoto tsunamigenico. [Similarly, Grases et al (1999) discards the occurence of the event and states: "The thesis that the destruction was caused by a hurricane seems most plausible, given the location of the island of Cubagua in an area found on the path followed by atmospheric phenomena". Should also be mentioned that in searching primary sources not a single result has been found to indicate the possibility of this supposed tsunamigenic earthquake.] (reference #11659)

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
Punta DE Araya	Venezuela	23			Eyewitness observation of water height
Cumana	Venezuela	26			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1543 The 1500s Tsunamis of Venezuela The earthquake 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 170.