March 1, 1779 Tsunami: Baltic Sea, Poland

Reference #14181:

On March 1, 1779, a storm appeared observed in both Leba and Kolobrzeg townships. A high wave flooded a part of Leba and moved a ship into town's gardens. Three hours later, a sea withdrawal was observed in Kolobrzeg, followed by flooding the land. The weather was calm at that time; only hollow sounds were heard and in the surrounding fields animals were strangely behaving.

After Brueggemann, 1779: 'The Baltic Sea often holds its own weather, which has no connection with weather on the land; sometimes, only rarely however, a submarine storm occurs in the Baltic Sea, which one can assume of because under a clear and calm sky, a thunder can be heard rolling along the Pomeranian sea coast, and dead or half-dead marine or coastal fishes being thrown out on the land. That had happened, for instance, on the 3rd of April, 1757: about the noon, at a calm and bright weather, the Baltic coast near Trzebiatow on Rega river became suddenly rolling so much that a big ferry-boat, moored in the harbour, had been snatched away by high waves and shifted far on the land. After that (rolling) had been three times repeated, the sea became calm again. The sailing coast inhabitants called that phenomenon the "Sea Bear" (Seebaer)'.

Descriptions of those phenomena correspond with the detailed descriptions of tsunami.

The 'Sea Bear' phenomenon has been observed not only at the calm sea and atmosphere but also during the fierce storms. However, origin of that phenomenon is not quite known, as yet.

Note: reference #14181 suggests a possible explanation, “Explosions of methane bound in traps are the cause of tsunami. The Southern Baltic coast can be endangered by these phenomena, usually considered as extremely rare in that area. Methane explosions can be initiated by events of moderate seismicity.”