December 1, 1877 Tsunami: Waipiro Bay, New Zealand
A tsunami of unknown cause began at Waipiro Bay, New Zealand on December 1, 1877 at 08:30 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
- December 1, 1877, 08:30 UTC
- Source
- Waipiro Bay, New Zealand
- Cause
- Unknown
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Questionable tsunami
- Source location
- 38.020° S, 178.330° 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.
According to newspapers of the day and Gregg (1958), between 20:00 and 21:00 on 01 December 1877, a large area of agitated and seething water was observed about 8 km offshore from the East Cape region. It was supposedly observed by two ships, the Pretty Jane and the SS Go Ahead, which were respectively off East Cape and Waipiro Bay (historically known as Open Bay). However, it is probable that some confusion has occurred with the names of the ships, and they were in fact the same ship.
The disturbance, which was less than 400 m across, was visible in front of the ship and to seaward and was moving towards the ship faster than it could steam. The main disturbance was successfully avoided. Nevertheless the ship was tossed and pitched about until it reached smooth water.
Newspaper accounts note that a slight earthquake was felt in Gisborne about 12-24 hours previously. Gregg (1958), in analysing the reports, suggests the disturbance was "a tsunami resulting from submarine landslides or faulting connected with the earthquake felt at Gisborne". There are no accounts of a tsunami reaching the coast in newspapers of the day. While earthquake faulting could cause such a disturbance, the earthquake's occurrence is too early and almost certainly too small, although it may have acted as a trigger. A more plausible explanation is a small submarine landslide, or an expulsive gas emission.
The event is given a validity of 2, as it is possible that a small tsunami was generated, but the source was too small and too localised for the tsunami to reach land at an observable height. The event is primarily recorded in the database to document the occurrence of localised disturbances at sea which may have been caused by gas hydrate emission, the larger events of this sort having been identified as possible tsunami generators. (reference #5324)
More
Every tsunami in 1877The 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 5546.