October 29, 1853 Tsunami: E. Taiwan-Ryukyu Islands
A tsunami caused by a volcano began at E. Taiwan-Ryukyu Islands on October 29, 1853.
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
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
- October 29, 1853
- Source
- E. Taiwan-Ryukyu Islands
- Cause
- Volcano
- Volcano
- The eruption that caused it
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 24.000° N, 121.830° 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.
Reference #414:
1853, October 29. Validity 1. There was an underwater eruption off the eastern coast of Taiwan Island. An eyewitness of the event, an officer of an American naval vessel, related: "When we could no long see the volcano, the eruption was still at its height. The volcano disappeared completely north-northeast of us, when we were 20 km away from it. This was at 15:00. No ships were visible on the horizon. Later, when we came near the volcano again, the sea was so agitated and churned so heavily, that the watch and other officers at first assumed that the ship had come into breakers. Then we realized that these effects were due to the volcanic eruption".
Reference #150:
1853 Oct 29. E. Taiwan. No quake report.
More
Every tsunami in 1853The 1800sTsunamis of TaiwanThe eruptionThis 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 809.