February 1756 Tsunami: Western Norway
A tsunami caused by a landslide began at Western Norway in February 1756. The water rose as high as 38 meters. It killed 32 people.
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
- February 1756
- Source
- Western Norway
- Cause
- Landslide
- Maximum water height
- 38 m (124.7 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 6
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 62.767° N, 7.900° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 32
- Damage
- Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
- Houses destroyed
- 168
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.
3 waves, severe turbulence, Tjelle (reference #4139)
1756 Feb, 62.767 N 7.9 E. (reference #11164)
This slide occurred in February or March 1756. Scholling states that a large portion of Tjellefjellet fell into the sea and caused a large flood during which severe turbulence was evident over the entire fjord. The crack in the rock extended right up to the top of the mountain, and it had been noticed for a few years that the crack was increasing in size. Before the slide occurred it had been raining continuously for 8 days and nights. Sehening gives the dimensions of the slide as being 1400 m high and more than 900 m wide. These dimensions would appear to be somewhat excessive when considering the slide masses [...] This is, therefore, the largest historical rockslide known in Norway. Although the fjord is very large and deep, the water appeared to be very muddy on the day after the slide. The waves resulting from the slide have been stated to reach "50 paces in height" above normal water level. On both sides of Langfjord and Eresfjord considerable damage resulted to a height of several metres and up to 200 paces inland from the shore. At Veoy, approximately 25 kilometres from the slide, the water reached 20 paces higher on land than the highest tide level, tore down a fence and deposited sand, seaweed and seashells on land. At Gjermundnes, which lies about 40 kilometres from Tjelle, the wave was also quite extensive. The wave did not only wash away the soil but also trees and houses, and a number of vessels and boats were destroyed. A considerable number of deepwater fish, such as halibut and cod, were found to have been thrown as much as 100 to 200 paces up on land. Altogether 32 people perished as a result of the slide. From the descriptions by 2 persons who survived, it would appear that there were 3 waves. (reference #13255)
The rockslide collapsed on 22 February 1756 and formed three displacement waves causing run-ups of up to 40–50min the Langfjord. The displacement waves killed 32 people and destroyed 168 houses and 196 boats (reference #13949)
More
Every tsunami in 1756The 1700sTsunamis of NorwayAlerts 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 4253.