March 14, 1872 Tsunami: SW. Honshu Island, Japan
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake began at SW. Honshu Island, Japan on March 14, 1872 at 08:20 UTC. The water rose as high as 3 meters. Its effects were recorded at 12 places. It killed 804 people, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.
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
- March 14, 1872, 08:20 UTC
- Source
- SW. Honshu Island, Japan
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7.4, 33 km deep
- Maximum water height
- 3 m (9.8 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 12
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 1
- Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
- 1.5
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 34.900° N, 132.000° E
The toll
- Deaths
- Few (about 1 to 50); 804 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Injuries
- 200 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses destroyed
- 5,796 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:
On March 14, 1872 [17:20 local time] there was a strong earthquake in Shimane Prefecture, where Nada district suffered especially... In all 552 people died in the earthquake; about 5,000 homes collapsed.
The earthquake was preceded by foreshocks. An underground rumbling was heard four or five days before the main shock. On March 14, a rather strong foreshock was felt at about 11:00 [Local time] and was also accompanied by a rumble. A second strong foreshock occurred at 16:00, another one of less force occurred an hour later, and the main earthquake struck 10 minutes later. It was associated with large changes in the relief of the earth's surface...
There are reports that the visible changes in relief and the associated changes in sea level began not long before the main earthquake. After the earthquake, a tsunami was observed on the coast of three districts: Nima, Naka and Mino. It frightened the residents considerably, but did no damage...
At the time of the earthquake, three fishing boats, which had come out from Hamada Bay to fish, were passing through the strait at Setogashima Island. Rocks falling from the steep cliff sank two of the boats, and the surviving boat was carried out to sea by the water leaving the bay. However, after some time, the boat was picked up by a flood tide and once again found itself in the bay.
Iida et al. (1967): 34.8 N., 132 E.; M=7.1, m=1, probability 3.
Reference #150:
Mar 14, 1872, 34.9 N,m 132 E, magnitude 7.4. Tsunami height 3m at Fukumitsu. 804 deaths, 5796 houses destroyed in total. Sea receded before the shock. Land 2.4 m upheaved at Hamada.
Reference #1068:
March 14, 1872, 35 N 132.5 E, 600 deaths, 5,000 houses destroyed... In the Hamada earthquake of 1872 there was an uplift of the shore amounting to 6 1/2 feet, thirty minutes before a widely felt shock. Fishermen began to gather stranded fish and shells on a bared narrow bar joining the shore with an islet. Immediately after the shock they rushed to higher ground and escaped the moderate tsunami which followed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hamada | Japan | 6 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Nagahama | Japan | 6 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Sufu | Japan | 6 | 1 | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||
| Kokubu | Japan | 11 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Takashima Island | Japan | 16 | 1 | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||
| Kamate | Japan | 20 | 0.75 | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||
| Mino District | Japan | 26 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Kuromatsu | Japan | 33 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Yuzato | Japan | 46 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Isotake | Japan | 52 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Fukumitsu | Japan | 477 | 3 | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||
| Niman | Japan | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1872The 1800sTsunamis of JapanThe 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 2026-10-01. NCEI tsunami event 1038.