January 19, 1866 Tsunami: Chios Island, Aegean Islands, Greece
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake began at Chios Island, Aegean Islands, Greece on January 19, 1866.
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
- January 19, 1866
- Source
- Chios Island, Aegean Islands, Greece
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 6.8
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 3
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Questionable tsunami
- Source location
- 38.250° N, 26.200° E
The toll
- Damage
- Moderate (about $1 to $5 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses damaged
- 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.
1866 Jan 19 (or 22), 12h 30m, 38.25 N 26.25 E. On the same day, intensive boiling of the sea water was noticed approximately in the middle of the strait separating Island of Chwsj+oni Asia Minor. It was as though a cloud of vapour rose fiom the waves. According to other data, oscillations of the sea level were observed [Perrey, 1870; Fuchs, 1866; Schmidt, 1881; Galanopoulos, 1954; Karnik, 19721. The tsunami near Island of Chios is dealt with more fully in [Ambraseys, 1961]. (reference #2130)
1866 Jan 19, 12:30, 38.25 N 26.2E, tsunami reliability 2 (questionable). Intensive boiling of the sea water was noticed approximately in the middle of the Cesme strait, oscillations of the level were observed (reference #9275)
1866 Jan 19, 38.25 N 26.2E, Tsunami intensity 4, Tsunami reliability 1 (improbable). (reference #11164)
On 19 January 1866, intensive boiling of the seawater was observed in the Chios- Cesme Strait [20]. (reference #13873)
1866 Jan 19, Chios. Another series of strong earthquakes occurred in the island of Chios. Many houses were damaged progressively, the sequence lasting until 20 March. It is said that during the earthquake the sea between Chios and the mainland became agitated and columns of smoke were seen rising from its surface. These shocks were not reported from nearby Izmir (Schmidt 1897; Perrey 1870, 38, 42; Fuchs 1886). (reference #9116)
More
Every tsunami in 1866The 1800sTsunamis of GreeceThe 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 947.