January 4, 1802 Tsunami: Bakar, Croatia
A tsunami of meteorological origin began at Bakar, Croatia on January 4, 1802 at 07:00 UTC. Its effects were recorded at 3 places.
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
The tsunami
- Date
- January 4, 1802, 07:00 UTC
- Source
- Bakar, Croatia
- Cause
- Meteorological
- Runups recorded
- 3
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 3
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Erroneous entry
- Source location
- 45.300° N, 14.400° E
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.
Possibly 07-08 hour. Adriatic Sea, Dalmatia. Earthquake continued for more than a minute in Trieste, and was strong in Rijeka (Fiume) and Bakar, was felt in Carinthia, was weak in Ljubljana, in the Banat district and on the territory occupied by the Turks (reference #2130).
[...] large sea waves at Rijeka and Bakar occurred concurrently with a heavy storm, several hours prior to the earthquake, thus ruling out the possibility of a tsunami. Let us note that Tinti et al. (2004) [ref#1392] have noted this as a false event. However, from the diagram of the bibliographical sources (Fig. 14), we see that several recent tsunami catalogues have adopted misinterpreted information from historical publications and, being unaware of the detailed study of Albini et al. (1994) [#7176], have listed the 4 January 1802 event as a tsunami. (reference #9531)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rijeka | Croatia | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||||
| Bakar | Croatia | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||||
| Trieste | Croatia | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1802The 1800sTsunamis of CroatiaThis 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 3214.