October 11, 1737 Tsunami: Calcutta, India

Reference #1696 finds that this event was actually a cyclone, not an earthquake and tsunami.

[...] the impact of a cyclone in the northern Bay of Bengal in 1737, which wreaked havoc in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and may have been accompanied by an earthquake and tsunami. Murty and Rafiq (1991) ascribe the 30,0000 deaths reported for this event as being due to a tsunami. The figure of 30,0000 deaths appears to have originated in an account that both Oldham (1883) and Baird-Smith (1843) attribute to Gentleman’s Magazine, but which Bilham (1994) established was actually published in London Magazine in 1738. While there seems no question that a major cyclone struck the northern Bay of Bengal on 11 October 1737 (e.g. Blanford 1883), Bilham (1994) points out that the population of Kolkata at this time was fewer than 20,000, and that the deaths there due to this event are unlikely to have exceeded 3000. Furthermore, Bilham (1994) casts doubt on whether any earthquake occurred at all, as all of the known accounts are consistent with a cyclone alone. The one exception to this is the sinking ‘without breaking’ of St. Anne’s Church, related by both Oldham (1884) and Baird-Smith (1845), which seems difficult to explain without invoking earthquakeinduced liquefaction. However, Bilham (1994) cites historical evidence indicating that the entire church did not sink, but simply had its steeple toppled by the cyclone. We therefore dismiss the suggestion of a tsunami on 11th October 1737, the marine flood and associated deaths being linked to a tropical cyclone and possible earthquake rather than a tsunami. (reference #2725)