October 2, 1781 Tsunami: Jamaica
A tsunami of meteorological origin began at Jamaica on October 2, 1781. The water rose as high as 3 meters.
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
- October 2, 1781
- Source
- Jamaica
- Cause
- Meteorological
- Maximum water height
- 3 m (9.8 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
- 1.6
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Erroneous entry
The toll
- Deaths
- Few (about 1 to 50)
- Houses destroyed
- Some (about 51 to 100)
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.
Mallet (Reference #496) reported that several severe shocks occurred and, "The sea rose to the heigh of 10 feet at a half-a-mile from its ordinary beach and swept away a number of houses." Mallet surmised that this is likely the same event, misdated, as October 2, 1780.
More
Every tsunami in 1781The 1700sTsunamis of JamaicaThis 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 531.