January 10, 1878 Tsunami: Tanna Island, Vanuatu
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake began at Tanna Island, Vanuatu on January 10, 1878. The water rose as high as 12 meters. 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
- January 10, 1878
- Source
- Tanna Island, Vanuatu
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7.5
- Volcano
- The eruption that caused it
- Maximum water height
- 12 m (39.4 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 1
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 3
- Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
- 3.6
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Probable tsunami
- Source location
- 19.000° S, 168.500° E
The toll
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
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:
1878, January 10 at 10:00 [local time], validity 3. There was a strong earthquake on Tanna Island; the subsequent tremors lasted four weeks. A new pit of crater formed near the "sulphur bay" [in Sapper's unlikely opinion, this was the result of a volcanic explosion]. Two minutes [?] later, the coast rose 6 m along the entire western side of Resolution Harbor. The anchorages in the bay were correspondingly restricted; at one place, where ships with a displacement of 1000-1500 tons used to ride freely, an old sunken anchor became visible. The earthquake generated a roller 12 m high, or 15-17 m high, according to other sources, which inundated the eastern tip of the harbor and destroyed all the canoes of the local residents an all the plantations. When the water surged back, many fish were left in the bushes.
Reference #132:
1878, January 10. New Hebrides Islands, Tanna Island (south end of group). At Port Resolution the sea rose 40 feet. This was accompanied by a maximum rise of 10 feet of the sea bottom.
Reference #79:
1878, January 10. New Hebrides. Quake and eruption, new crater Yasowa volcano, Tanna Island, 19.5 S, 169.4 E. Runups at New Hebrides: Tanna Island, Port Resolution. Tsunami accompanied sea bottom rise of 3 m maximum. Sapper does not mention quake. Milne and Sieberg do not mention eruption. Height is given variously as 17 m by Sapper, 16 m by Fuchs and Sieberg, and 12 m by Heck.
Reference #13893:
On 10 January, a strong earthquake generated a 6m uplift of the coast and a locally devastating tsunami, rising 12m above highest tide mark (or 15–17m high according to other sources; Soloviev and Go, 1974).
Reference #1686:
Possibly the largest tsunami of this type occurred on 10 January 1878 in association with an eruption of Yasour Volcano in the New Hebrides; formation of a new crater and marked uplift accompanied a strong earthquake, with an attendant tsunami 17 m high (Fuchs, 1879); a second earthquake and eruption, with a smaller tsunami, occurred a month later. but little is known in detail either about the earthquakes or the eruptions (see Carney et al., 1979). (reference #1686)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tanna Island | Vanuatu | 104 | 12 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1878The 1800sTsunamis of VanuatuThe 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 1086.