August 11, 1855 Tsunami: Central Chile
A tsunami caused by an earthquake began at Central Chile on August 11, 1855 at 09:15 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
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
- August 11, 1855, 09:15 UTC
- Source
- Central Chile
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- The earthquake
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 33.000° S, 71.700° 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.
August 11, 1855, 5:15 [local time], tsunami event validity questionable. At Valparaiso there was an earthquake, the strongest since the shock of April 2, 1851. The sea churned and anchor chains shook. At Rancagua, there were two shocks lasting a total of 2-3 seconds, a rumble lasting about 10 seconds. At Santiago, two gradually fading tremors lasting a total of 18 seconds at 1 second intervals accompanied by a subterranean rumble. The earthquake was accompanied by a foreshock and aftershocks. [Apparently, this concerns only a seaquake.] (reference #415)
August 11, 1855, 33 S, 71.7 W, runup height 0.7 m, S. Central Chile. (reference #552)
More
Every tsunami in 1855The 1800sTsunamis of ChileThe 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 847.