September 1627 Tsunami: W. Luzon Island, Philippines

Name: September 1627 Tsunami: W. Luzon Island, Philippines
Location: W. Luzon Island, Philippines

September 1627 · Probable tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake began at W. Luzon Island, Philippines in September 1627. Its effects were recorded at 4 places in at least 2 countries.

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

The tsunami

Date: September 1627
Source: W. Luzon Island, Philippines
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 7.5
Runups recorded: 4
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 3.5
Tsunami magnitude (Iida): 2
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Probable tsunami
Source location: 18.700° N, 121.800° E

The toll

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.

Reference #414:

1627, September (August), magnitude 8, event validity 3. During a layover at Bangui of the Spanish Fleet, which was trying to drive the Dutch from Taiwan Island, there was an earthquake. Fourteen shocks were felt on the ships in one day. Several monasteries in Cagayan province were destroyed. The sea flooded the land for 4 km (1 league) and the waves uprooted trees. Brief information on the earthquake, with no mention of the tsunami, is given in a number of other publications.

Reference #150:

1627, September 14, distant origin?, event validity 3, N. Luzon Is., Philippine. Tsunami on the coast of Wada, Awa, Chiba prefecture.

Reference #79:

1627, September, N. Luzon, 16 N, 121 E, waves inundated one league. Trees uprooted.

Reference #1187:

1627, September, Northern Luzon: Fourteen earthquakes were felt in one day. Cagayan - many buildings were wrecked; an enormous mountain opened in the center with a tremendous gap; trees were overthrown by the terrific force of the waves of the sea which invaded the land for a distance of a league (about 3 miles). This is probably a tsunami.

Reference #10958:

Nieremberg, another historian who was later quoted by Perrey (1860), erroneously attributed the affected place to Camarines instead of Cagayan and the year of occurrence as 1638.

Reference #13536:

September 14, 1627, Philippine earthquake Iida (1984) linked the Japanese record of the ground motion and tsunami on September 14, 1627, with the Philippine earthquake in the same year. The origin of the Japanese record can be traced back to a description in "Awa-shi" [Saito (1908)], but no contemporaneous historical record can be confirmed. However, the interpretation by Iida (1984) is incorrect as "Awa-shi" states ground motion and tsunami were present in Awa. In addition, although references, such as Perrey (1860), describe the earthquake and tsunami in the Philippines as occurring in August or September, there are no known sources that specify the date of occurrence. Therefore, the 1627 Philippine earthquake and tsunami in Chiba Prefecture are unrelated, and the date of the earthquake can only be specified in terms of the month.

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	Inland, m	Measured by
Cagayan, W. Luzon	Philippines	44	4,800	Eyewitness observation of water height
Bangui	Philippines	118	4,000	Eyewitness observation of water height
Awa doubtful	Japan	2,562		Eyewitness observation of water height
Wada doubtful	Japan	2,608		Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1627 The 1600s Tsunamis of Philippines The earthquake 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 238.