March 1775 Tsunami: Unknown Location, Haiti

Name: March 1775 Tsunami: Unknown Location, Haiti
Location: Unknown Location, Haiti

March 1775 · Very doubtful tsunami

A tsunami caused by an earthquake began at Unknown Location, Haiti in March 1775. Its effects were recorded at 1 place.

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

Tsunami warnings in force

The tsunami

Date: March 1775
Source: Unknown Location, Haiti
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: The earthquake
Runups recorded: 1
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Very doubtful tsunami
Source location: 19.000° N, 72.300° W

The toll

Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million)

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.

Lander et al. (Reference #537) reports, "Three strong shocks were felt at Hispaniola. Several storehouses were destroyed, and great damage was done by the sea. May be identical with February 11, 1775, and December 18, 1775." Grases (Reference #124) identifies Espanola (Hispaniola, today's Haiti and Dominican Republic) as "the island of Haiti."

1775, March. Poey reported three shocks for Mar. 1775 [no day], at Saint-Domingue, citing Southey, and also mentioned Martinique. Rubio reported a tsunami for Mar. 1775 at the Dominican Republic and noted an earthquake "felt over the whole island, causing damage for most." He

listed this event separately from an event at "Haiti" [no month or day] where "damage was produced by waves following three earthquakes." For both reports, he noted that the locale affected was not given. Rubio's Haiti event was dated 1755 [no month or day], but listed between 1770 and 1775 events (probably a typo since a previous chronologically correct 1755 entry was given). Heck reported damage caused by a tsunami, subsequent to three

earthquakes at Haiti for 1775 [no month or day]. Locations could be confused transliterations of "Santo Domingo," since the city of Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and all of Hispaniola were all at one time or another referred to as Santo Domingo. Grases defined

Espaiiola as "the island of Haiti." Montadon aptly queried about this confusion for "St. Domingo" in 1771 asking: "S'agit-il de la ville, du pays ou de l'ile?" ["Is it about the town, the country or the island?"] Grases, 1971; Montadon, 1962; P&y, 1857; Rubio, 1982; Southey, 1827; Taber, 1922b. V1. (reference #1492)

1775, March. Three strong shocks were felt on Hispaniola. Several storehouses were destroyed, and

great damage was done by the sea. May be identical with February 11, 1775, and December 18, 1775.

Grases, 1971; Rubio, 1982. V2. (reference #537)

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
Haiti	Haiti	11			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1775 The 1700s Tsunamis of Haiti The earthquake Alerts 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 2389.