September 1, 1726 Tsunami: Northern Sicily, Italy
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake began at Northern Sicily, Italy on September 1, 1726 at 21:55 UTC. Its effects were recorded at 1 place. It killed 250 people, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.
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
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
- September 1, 1726, 21:55 UTC
- Source
- Northern Sicily, Italy
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 5.8
- Runups recorded
- 1
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 3
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 38.117° N, 13.350° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 250 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses destroyed
- 1,614 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.
An extremely strong earthquake occurred in Palermo and its vicinity within a radius of 60 miles. According to some evidence, seismic oscillations were repeated 5 times (reference #2130).
Very violent earthquake in northern Sicily coasts near Palermo, causing severe damage in the city and in the neighbouring villages, with more than 200 victims.
In Palermo and in some other places sea withdrawal (Anonymous, r112; Anonymous r114; Villabianca r116). The sea retrat was estimated to be about 6 spans in Palermo (Mongitore, r113), where it came back violently toward the shore. A large mass detached from Mt. Gallo and fell in the sea and caused trouble to a boat (Ruffo, r115).
Offshore Ustica two ships risked the shipwreck because of an extraordinary sea agitation (Mongitore, r113).
Further references: Mallet (r33), Baratta (r1 and r55), De Panfilis (r117), Carrozzo (r41), Caputo(r5), Soloviev (r414- r582), Tinti (r9, r597), Boschi (r124). (reference #4139)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palermo | Italy | 1 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1726The 1700sTsunamis of ItalyThe earthquakeThis day in weather historyAlerts 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 3154.