April 30, 1871 Tsunami: Sulu Sea, Philippines
A tsunami caused by a volcano began at Sulu Sea, Philippines on April 30, 1871. Its effects were recorded at 1 place.
Where the waves reached
The source (white) and every runup with a place, colored by the water height recorded there. A ring is a runup NCEI marks doubtful.
- 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
- April 30, 1871
- Source
- Sulu Sea, Philippines
- Cause
- Volcano
- Earthquake
- The earthquake
- Volcano
- The eruption that caused it
- Runups recorded
- 1
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 2
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 9.203° N, 124.673° E
The toll
- Deaths
- Few (about 1 to 50) 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
- 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.
Reference #414:
1871, February 21. On Camiguin Island there was a
destructive earthquake, which devastated the extreme northern part of the island and which was felt on the islands of Mindanao, Bohoi, Cebu and others. Many wooden homes were destroyed and massive stone walls collapsed at Mambajao and Catarman; many avalanches occurred in the mountains. Many more shocks were registered almost daily until April 30. Four of these were strong, and were felt almost the same as the main earthquake (Maso, 1910 a).
On April 30, the Hibokhibok Volcano (Camiguin Island), which had been considered extinct, exploded and a new crater was formed at its foot. Maso (1911 b), describes the events as follows.
On April 30, at 7:00, a new volcano exploded with a terrifying roar on the north-northeast tip of the island. A column of steam, stones and ash rose into the air; the ash fell for a distance of up to 200 km from the volcano. Everything was destroyed in a radius of 2-3 km from the new crater. There were no victims, since the residents of the nearest settlement, Catarman, frightened by the earthquakes, had left their homes before the eruption. The underground shocks stopped almost completely for several days after the eruption.
Fuchs (1872) describes the eruption somewhat differently.
On April 30 (or May 1), the plain at Catarman settlement began to subside gradually, so that the roofs of the homes were soon at ground level. While many residents were observing this phenomenon, suddenly, at 17:00, a terrible roar pealed out, cracks appeared in the ground, and an eruption began from the small crater which had newly appeared in place of the village. A large cloud of smoke rose into the air. Flows of lava and water issued. The explosions, like shots from a large cannon, continued uninterrupted for several hours. Then a brief pause ensued, after which the explosions began again and new subsidences occurred, and lava again flowed from the crater, flooding the huts in its path and falling with a terrible hiss into the sea. A dense cloud of ash hung over the island. Shafts of flame from the volcano burst through the dark ash. The eruption lasted a long time.
The population of 26,000 people fled the island; it was inundated by a wave from the sea.
Perrey (1875) gives a fuller description of the eruption, but says nothing about a tsunami.
Every runup
Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.
| Where | Country | Km from source | Water height, m | Inland, m | Measured by | First wave, UTC | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catarman, Camiguin Island | Philippines | 9 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1871The 1800sTsunamis of PhilippinesThe earthquakeThe eruptionThis 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 1020.