January 14, 1546 Tsunami: Gaza - Jaffa, Israel
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake began at Gaza - Jaffa, Israel on January 14, 1546. 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
The tsunami
- Date
- January 14, 1546
- Source
- Gaza - Jaffa, Israel
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 6.5
- Runups recorded
- 1
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 3
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Probable tsunami
- Source location
- 32.000° N, 35.500° E
The toll
- Deaths
- Many (about 101 to 1,000)
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses destroyed
- Many (101 to 1,000) 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.
January 14, 1546. Levantian Sea. The strong earthquake occurred in Lebanon and Palestine... The sea bottom and the Jordan River bed dried up. After the storming sea had returned and rolled onto coast, over 12,000 inhabitants of Gaza and Jaffa were drowned. Sea waves were observed on the Island of Cyprus and on the shore of Asia Minor. (reference #2130).
January 14, 1546. Effects on the rivers flowing into the sea near Jaffa are reported in contemporary accounts, as well as the damming of the river Jordan. In addition, the sea withdrew from the coast of south Palestine and returned as a tsunami, which drowned many people. (reference #3845)
The earliest information about the 1546 earthquake comes from a letter written to a nobleman in Venice and published the same year in Wittenberg. The original letter was written in Italian, probably originating from a town on the coast of Palestine: “[…] The sea near Joppe retreated to a distance of a full days' i walk offshore (sic.), so that one could walk with dry feet on the sea bed. A great many people, about 10000, who ventured on foot offshore were drowned when the sea came back […]” […] implies that the coast was flooded by the sea all the way from Gaza to Jaffa (Techener 1861). The number of people drowned by the seismic sea wave is, obviously, grossly exaggerated. (reference #9116)
Shalem (1956), however, suspects that the origin of the tsunami is not known and it certainly needs to be verified. In his opinion, it might have been duplicated from the tsunami of 1068 03 18. (reference #10416)
1546. Earthquake wave, bed of the Jordan remained dry for two days. (reference #1222)
29 September 1546 (14 January 1546). Tsunami at Cyprus; tsunami from Yafa to Gaza; many people were killed; after the storming sea had returned and rolled onto the coast, over 12,000 inhabitants of Gaza and Yafa were drowned; tsunami on the coasts of Cyprus and of Asia Minor. Event reliability 4 (reference #9275)
January 14, 1546. definite tsunami. (reference #11164, v.2)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaza - Jaffa | Israel | 112 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1546The 1500sTsunamis of IsraelThe earthquakeThis day in weather historyAlerts 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 173.