May 1598 Tsunami: South Black Sea, Turkey
A tsunami caused by an earthquake and a landslide began at South Black Sea, Turkey in May 1598. It killed 60,000 people, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.
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
- May 1598
- Source
- South Black Sea, Turkey
- Cause
- Earthquake and landslide
- Earthquake
- The earthquake
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 3
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Probable tsunami
- Source location
- 40.400° N, 35.400° E
The toll
- Deaths
- Very many (over 1,000); 60,000 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Extreme (about $25 million or more) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses destroyed
- Very many (over 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.
Ref #1404:
According to Ambraseys and Finkel (1995): [...] the sea was driven back drowning a few thousand people in towns and villages”. In another, it is reported that Amasya was “cleaved engulfing many villages”. A further account places this event in the region of Amasya and adds that such an earthquake had not happened for many years and that the sea advanced for a mile inland on the coast of the Black Sea, drowning many people.
Ref #4213:
The sea advanced for a mile inland on the coast of the Black Sea, drowning many people. The tsunami in the gulf between Sinop and Samsun reached up to 1 m wave height [Altinok and Ersoy, 2000].
Ref #9391:
Probable tsunami. In some of the sources the descriptions may imply the occurrence of a strong tsunami on the Turkish Black Sea coast: “. . . the sea was driven back drowning a few thousand people in towns and villages”; and “. . . in Amasya [the ground] was cleaved engulfing many villages”; and “... the sea advanced inland for a mile on the coast of the Black Sea, drowning many people” (see review in Ambraseys and Finkel, 1995). Altinok and Ersoy (2000, p. 192) reproduced the above information and added that “The tsunami created by the earthquake in the gulf between Sinop and Samsun showed a wave height of approximately 1m (Nikonov, 1997b)”. However, we were unable to locate such an account in any of the papers of Nikonov (1997a, b) [...] Ambraseys (2009) noted that the occurrence of a seismic sea wave on the coast of the Black Sea, 100 km to the north of Amasya, is difficult to associate with the earthquake, unless it was associated with a massive submarine landslide.
Ref #9116:
1598 May. the data available are insufficient for one to assess fully [the earthquake's] effects [...] A contemporary letter from Venice mentions that "in 1598 there was such an earthquake in the Black Sea that Amasya together with other towns was thrown to the ground; in two towns alone 60000 men perished in the ruins of their houses; also the sea was driven back ( sic. ) drowning a few thousand people in towns and villages " (Nicola 1599 sub ann. ). The occurrence of a seismic sea wave on the coast of the Black Sea, 100 km to the north of Amasya, is difficult to associate with the earthquake, unless it was associated with a massive submarine landslide.
A further account that places this event in the region of Amasya adds that such an earthquake had not happened for many years and that the sea advanced inland for a mile on the coast of the Black Sea, drowning many people (Anon. 1606, 14).
Ref#9275:
1598. Definite tsunami. Tsunami waves at the coastal area between Sinop and Samsun due to the Amasya and Corum earthquake. The waves inundated about 1.6 km landward drowning a few thousand people living in the towns and villages.
Ref#11164:
1598. Probable tsunami.
Ref#12050:
1598. Definite tsunami.
More
Every tsunami in 1598The 1500sTsunamis of TurkeyThe 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 2026-10-01. NCEI tsunami event 5844.