January 23, 1878 Tsunami: Northern Chile

Name: January 23, 1878 Tsunami: Northern Chile
Start: 1878-01-23
Location: Northern Chile

January 23, 1878 · Deaths: few · Very doubtful tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake began at Northern Chile on January 23, 1878 at 12:05 UTC. Its effects were recorded at 2 places.

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

Tsunami warnings in force

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: January 23, 1878, 12:05 UTC
Source: Northern Chile
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 7.9, 40 km deep
Runups recorded: 2
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Very doubtful tsunami
Source location: 19.920° S, 70.335° W

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.

January 23, 1878, 19:55 local time, 18.5 S, 70.5 W, magnitude 7, tsunami validity erroneous. A strong earthquake occurred, in the north of Chile in the province of Tarapaca. After the earthquake a wave fell onshore. It destroyed Pica, Tarapaca, Mamiiia, and many other settlements. Pisagua and Arica were flooded (Fuchs, 1879, 1885 b; Milne, 1912 b; Sieberg, 1932; Heck, 1934, 1947; Anon., 196 F Berninghausen, 1962; Ponyavin, 1965; Iida et al., 1967). In contrast to other authors, Goll and Montessus de Ballore (Goll, 1903; Montessus de Ballore, 1911 b) mention that at Arica and Iquique the sea was calm, unlike the earthquake of May 9, 1877, and emphasize that Pica, Tarapaca and Mamiiia, situated 60-70 km from shore, could not have been destroyed by the tsunami waves. (reference #415)

January 23, 1878, Arequipa-Iquique epicenter, tsunami observed Arequipa-Iquique, Piragua, Arica. (reference #79)

January 23, 1878, Chile and Peru. Earthquake felt at Arequipa and Iquique. Sea wave inundated coastal towns. (reference #39)

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
Pisagua	Chile	38			Eyewitness observation of water height
Arica	Chile	161			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1878 The 1800s Tsunamis of Chile The earthquake This day in weather history Alerts 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 1090.