March 29, 1756 Tsunami: Lisbon, Portugal
A tsunami caused by an earthquake began at Lisbon, Portugal on March 29, 1756.
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
- March 29, 1756
- Source
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- The earthquake
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 38.700° N, 9.100° W
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.
Berninghausen (Reference #41) says: "1756 March 29. Portugal. Violent shock at Lisbon. The waters of the Tagus River were much swollen." His reference is Mallet and Mallet (Reference #1879).
Mar. 29, 1756, a violent shock; the waters of the Tagus rose considerably. (reference #516)
Tagus level rise. Event reliability: 1. (reference #4139)
1756 Mar 29, 38.7 N 9.2 W. Event reliability: 2. Perrey (1847) describes: “The 29th, in the morning, at Lisbon, one violent shock; the water of Tagus raised noticeably”; this author quotes the Journal Historique (1756) that reports the aftershock and the agitation in the waters of Tagus River, after several letters received from Lisbon. There is no description in Mendonca (1758) and the earthquake is not included in the catalogs of LNEC (1986), Martins and Victor (2001) or Sousa et al. (1992). Rodriguez (1932) included the same description in his catalog. (reference #4649)
1756 Mar 29, 38.7 N 9.183 W. Event reliability: 2 (reference #11164)
More
Every tsunami in 1756The 1700sTsunamis of PortugalThe 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 461.