March 31, 1869 Tsunami: South Island, New Zealand
A tsunami of unknown cause began at South Island, New Zealand on March 31, 1869 at 18:00 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
- March 31, 1869, 18:00 UTC
- Source
- South Island, New Zealand
- Cause
- Unknown
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Questionable tsunami
- Source location
- 45.090° S, 170.980° 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.
"Some rather curious tidal phenomena were observed [on April 1], the ebb and flow being very variable, so that while the boatmen were at work they, while at one moment only up to the knees in water, were at another up nearly to the armpits. Rumour reaches us, too, which however, we have been unable as yet to verify, that ... there was an unusual recession of the tide, which left the Landing Service boats (anchored in eleven feet water) for some little time high and dry. This is said to have occurred at 5.30 a.m." [In Oamaru Times (Extra edition?) 2 April 1869, quoted in Hawke's Bay Herald 16 April 1869) (reference #5324)
More
Every tsunami in 1869The 1800sTsunamis of New ZealandThis 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 5548.