Tsunamis in 1852

September 8, 1852 Tsunami: Asia Minor, Turkey

September 8, 1852 · Questionable tsunami

A tsunami caused by an earthquake began at Asia Minor, Turkey on September 8, 1852 at 22:30 UTC.

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

Tsunami warnings in force

Travel times

How long the first wave took to reach each part of the ocean, one line for each hour up to 24, estimated from the source and the depth of the sea.

The travel times are computed in your browser, which needs JavaScript.

  • 1 to 4 hours
  • 5 to 6 hours
  • 7 to 14 hours
  • 15 hours and more

Computed in your browser the way NOAA’s own travel time maps are: the wave travels at the square root of gravity times the depth, over NOAA’s ETOPO1 depths averaged to a 10 arc-minute grid. Checked against NOAA NCEI’s maps for 21 tsunamis over the first 24 hours, these lines fall within 10 minutes of NCEI’s at half the points compared and within 52 minutes at 9 in 10. They give when the first wave could arrive, not how high it is; bays, harbors and island chains finer than the grid can see it later. Not for use in a warning: see tsunami.gov.

The tsunami

Date
September 8, 1852, 22:30 UTC
Source
Asia Minor, Turkey
Cause
Earthquake
Runups recorded
0
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
3
Waters
Ocean
How certain
Questionable tsunami
Source location
38.260° N, 27.090° 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.

"An earthquake 7 s long occurred, the sea rose." (reference #2130)

More

Every tsunami in 1852The 1800sTsunamis of TurkeyThis 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 789.