April 1694 Tsunami: Taiwan
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 5.5 earthquake began at Taiwan in April 1694.
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
The tsunami
- Date
- April 1694
- Source
- Taiwan
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 5.5
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- A lake or river, not the ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 25.000° N, 121.500° E
The toll
The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this tsunami.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
Reference #3939:
1694, 5 [April]. Earthquakes occurred continually in April. People were terrified and moved away. The Taibei basin partly subsided, so that river water flew in forming the "Kangxi Taibei Lake". Three communes including Mashaoweng (in and around the present-day Qilian and Shilin) were submerged. Note: It is supposed to be a subsidence.
Reference #11505:
In northern Taiwan, a tsunami in AD 1754 has been reported and appears to be coeval with the lower quartzose sandy layer at the boundary between the 17th and 18th centuries (Hsu, 1971; Iida, 1984; Lau et al., 2010; Soloviev and Go, 1974; Yang, 1987). We note that the historical record misplaced a disastrous earthquake event (not tsunami) in AD 1694 by 60 years, due to the sexagenary cycle that was adopted in Taiwan's early history (Fang, 1969; Hsu, 1983; Yu, 1698). Similar to the AD 1867 earthquake, the AD 1694 earthquake was also related to the Shanchiao Fault, and resulted in metres of hanging wall subsidence in Taipei, southwest of Jinshan (Hsu, 1983; Lai et al., 2010).
The AD 1694 earthquake could be correlated to the lower event layer between the 14th-17th century deposits and the 18th century deposits. This implies that the earthquake could have contributed to an unreported tsunami that was first identified in this study based on the presence of a marine quartzose sandy layer.
Reference #11506:
In addition, according to historical documents, an earthquake large enough to destroy an aboriginal house and produce an earthquake-induced lake "Kanshi Taipei Lake" might have occurred in this area during April 1694 (Hsu 1983)
More
Every tsunami in 1694The 1600sTsunamis of TaiwanThe 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 2026-09-24. NCEI tsunami event 5601.