1666 Tsunami: Salvador, Brazil

Reference #14128 [unofficial translation]:

“Another extraordinary accident happened in Bahia at that time (1666), like never before, the sea grew 3 times in 3 alternated days , with such amount of waters that went beyond the natural limits, “dilating” the waves much further than the beach line and covering it with endless little fish, which were collected by the local residents and people from other towns - more focused on their hunger than on the amazing event, proud of receiving that great gift from the volunteer and efficient sea, without considering that when the elemental bodies are out-of-natural order, it is bad for humans, and cause not only health changes and material damages, but also hurts the empire.”

Reference #14100 [unofficial translation]:

Residents of the ancient city of Bahia, now Salvador, experienced an unusual event: “the sea rose three times in three alternating days, with such a profusion of water that it ran over the limits that nature had set for it, expanding the waves far beyond the beaches, and leaving them covered with countless small fish, which the residents of the city and the suburbs harvested” (Pitta, 1950). The historian adds that the inhabitants were more concerned with looking after their appetites than imagining how the sea had “voluntarily and lavishly brought them such a copious tribute”.

This information appeared in a publication by the Bahian engineer and historian Theodoro Fernandes Sampaio (1916), who attributed the event to an underwater earthquake, with an unknown epicenter, somewhere in the Atlantic.

The special thing about this account is the triple repetition of the phenomenon on alternate days. In the case of just one event, you could think like Sampaio. But it would take three strong earthquakes, almost in succession and with special qualities, to generate waves large enough to affect the coastline. Tsunamis are rare in the Atlantic, and three in a row on the Brazilian coast would be an event of almost zero probability. Therefore, a tectonic origin does not seem to explain what happened. In his account, the historian makes no mention of strong storms, which could have explained the appearance of large sea swells and the advance of the sea inland. Thus, it is possible that atmospheric irregularities originating in regions far from the continent ended up inducing the sequences of unusual waves on the beaches of Salvador.