September 2, 1754 Tsunami: Marmara Sea, Turkey
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake began at Marmara Sea, Turkey on September 2, 1754 at 21:45 UTC. It killed 2,000 people, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.
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
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 2, 1754, 21:45 UTC
- Source
- Marmara Sea, Turkey
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 6.8
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 40.800° N, 29.200° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 2,000 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Extreme (about $25 million or more) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses destroyed
- Very many (over 1,000) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses damaged
- Very many (over 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.
As a result of the earthquake the sea receded permanently from the shore, for more than three ‘passi geometri’ (BC Misc PD 77c.95). It is not known where this happened and whether this was the result of a seismic sea wave or a permanent change of the coastline due to slumping. (reference #9116)
1754 Sept 02 (21:45). Improbable Tsunami. (reference #11164, v.2)
1754 Sept 02 (21:45). Reliability 2-3 (questionable or probable). In places the sea receded from the shore, presumably in Istanbul (reference #9275)
1754 Sept 02 (21:30). Sea receded in Constantinople. Reliability 2. (reference #2427)
More
Every tsunami in 1754The 1700sTsunamis of TurkeyThe 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 5932.