September 16, 1852 Tsunami: W. Luzon Island, Philippines

Name: September 16, 1852 Tsunami: W. Luzon Island, Philippines
Start: 1852-09-16
Location: W. Luzon Island, Philippines

September 16, 1852 · 3 deaths · Questionable tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake began at W. Luzon Island, Philippines on September 16, 1852 at 10:30 UTC. Its effects were recorded at 1 place. It killed 3 people, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.

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

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 16, 1852, 10:30 UTC
Source: W. Luzon Island, Philippines
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 7.5
Runups recorded: 1
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 1.5
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Questionable tsunami
Source location: 14.000° N, 120.500° E

The toll

Deaths: 3 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Injuries: 1 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses destroyed: Many (101 to 1,000) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it

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.

Reference #414:

September 16, 1852, 18:30 [local time], 14 N, 120.5 E, magnitude 7.5. There was a destructive earthquake in the central part of Luzon Island. The tremors were felt onboard a ship at 17 deg 30 min N., 118 deg 50 min E. At Manila, the sea rose considerably with a slight wind of variable direction, and the water phosphoresced. The report of the governor general notes that, fortunately, it was ebb tide; had it not been for this, the water of the river would have flooded the floodplain around the city and caused much trouble.

Reference #3029:

1852 September 16m 6:30 p.m. Southwestern Luzon...The first place in the literature of this earthquake must be given to the official report of the Governor-General and its

covering letter. These are rare documents, and we believe they should be given fully. "At 6:30 on the night of the 16th of September, just passed, this capital experienced an earthquake which began with a gentle shaking movement and changed in a few moments to a north-south oscillation which attained such strength that it moved the pendulum through 31o in its swing. The violence decreased for a moment and then there followed a terrible shaking and at the same time an east-west oscillation of such force that the pendulum mounted to 43o; the duration of this terrible earthquake being precisely one minute. The tide was low at the time, which was fortunate, for if it had been high perhaps the water of the river would have flooded the low land outside the city and caused great alarm... Father Saderra Maso quotes some passages of the report in the Boletin Oficial, but gives the time as 6:45 instead of 6:30, and inserts a remark about the Pasig River which does not appear in the Boletfn. MSM, p. 36.

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
Pasig River, Manila Bay	Philippines	81			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1852 The 1800s Tsunamis of Philippines The earthquake This day in weather history Alerts 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 790.