February 4, 1867 Tsunami: Ionian Sea, Greece
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake began at Ionian Sea, Greece on February 4, 1867 at 04:19 UTC. It killed 223 people, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.
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
- February 4, 1867, 04:19 UTC
- Source
- Ionian Sea, Greece
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7.4
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 2
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Probable tsunami
- Source location
- 38.233° N, 20.424° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 223 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses destroyed
- 3,200 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses damaged
- 2,600 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.
1867, February 4. Islands of Kefallania and Levkas. Tsunami. (reference #2130)
1867, February 4, 04:19, 38.39° N, 20.52° E, h =n, M=7.4, Cephalonia (X, Lixouri). Withdraw of the sea was observed before and after the earthquake. A very light sea wave was also observed. (reference #4408)
There is no evidence that the earthquake was felt in Istanbul, in Thessaloniki or on Malta as reported in the press or that it was associated with a seismic sea wave. (reference #9116)
More
Every tsunami in 1867The 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 3446.