August 15, 1866 Tsunami: Sydney Harbor, Australia
A tsunami of unknown cause began at Sydney Harbor, Australia on August 15, 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
The tsunami
- Date
- August 15, 1866
- Source
- Sydney Harbor, Australia
- Cause
- Unknown
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- -1
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 33.800° S, 151.300° 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.
August 15-21, 1866, extremely strong water movement was recorded in Sydney Harbor. (reference #415)
Reference #2783 lists an observation at a tide gauge in Sydney (?)
More
Every tsunami in 1866The 1800sTsunamis of AustraliaThis 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 956.