June 28, 1585 Tsunami: North Aegean Sea, Greece

Name: June 28, 1585 Tsunami: North Aegean Sea, Greece
Start: 1585-06-28
Location: North Aegean Sea, Greece

June 28, 1585 · Deaths: few · Probable tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7 earthquake began at North Aegean Sea, Greece on June 28, 1585. 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: June 28, 1585
Source: North Aegean Sea, Greece
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 7
Runups recorded: 1
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Probable tsunami
Source location: 40.200° N, 24.500° E

The toll

Deaths: Few (about 1 to 50) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage: Limited (under about $1 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.

Ref #9116:

The earthquake seems to have generated a seismic sea wave, which flooded the harbour area.

The sea receded to the entrance of the small harbour of the monastery of Megali Lavra and then flowed back (Stojanovic 1902, 234).

Ref #12677:

A more faithful English translation of the relevant passage reads as follows: "after the earthquake[...]the sea grew rough and then drew back up to the mouth of the port[...]." Very likely, this happened at the arsanas [small port] of the Great Lavra Monastery.

However, no evidence is available about the generation mechanism of that tsunami.

Ref #13873:

A local tsunami was generated by the large 28 June 1585, M = 7.0 Mt. Athos earthquake and was observed at the eastern side of Mt. Athos. More specifically, the sea grew rough and then drew back up to the mouth of the port located close to the Megali Lavra Monastery

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
Great Lavra MN., Mt. Athos	Greece	10			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1585 The 1500s Tsunamis of Greece 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 5745.