October 11, 1859 Tsunami: N. Central Chile
A tsunami caused by an earthquake began at N. Central Chile on October 11, 1859.
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
The tsunami
- Date
- October 11, 1859
- Source
- N. Central Chile
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Erroneous entry
The toll
- Houses destroyed
- 200 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.
October 11, 1859. There was an earthquake in Copiapo in which two hundred homes collapsed. In the port of Caldera, the ocean was agitated again and ships riding at anchor experienced entirely the same effect as the shocks produced on land. [Apparently, the date is mistaken, and this report concerns the earthquake of October 5, 1859, since other more accurate catalogues (Perrey, 1867; Montessus de Ballore, 1911 b) note that on October 11 only two very brief shocks, not doing any damage, were felt at Copiapo.] (reference #415)
October 5 or 11, 1855, near Copiapo, runup height 5.5 m. (reference #79)
More
Every tsunami in 1859The 1800sTsunamis of ChileThis 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 889.