February 4, 1797 Tsunami: Peru-Ecuador
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 8.3 earthquake began at Peru-Ecuador on February 4, 1797.
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
- February 4, 1797
- Source
- Peru-Ecuador
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 8.3
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- A lake or river, not the ocean
- How certain
- An event that only caused a seiche
- Source location
- 1.640° S, 78.670° 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.
Reference #14362 lists a destructive earthquake and accompanying tsunami on 04 Feb 1796. Probable the year intended is 1797 of the same date. The reference cites a newspaper report in the St. Petersburg Vedomosti describing ship and boat wreckage and fish carcasses washed ashore (at unspecified locations in Peru) serves as proof of a tsunami. However, this event is well documented and no other references to tsunami-like waves can be found.
Note: This event is widely agreed to be an inland earthquake, not a coastal.
References #1211 and #14382 document landslide dam break flooding as well as seiching laguna de Colta (Ecuador).
More
Every tsunami in 1797The 1700sTsunamis of EcuadorThe 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 6172.