Tsunamis in 1884

January 25, 1884 Tsunami: N. California, United States

January 25, 1884 · Erroneous entry

A tsunami of unknown cause began at N. California, United States on January 25, 1884. 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

Tsunami warnings in force

The tsunami

Date
January 25, 1884
Source
N. California, United States
Cause
Unknown
Runups recorded
1
Waters
Ocean
How certain
Erroneous entry
Source location
38.000° N, 122.000° W

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.

1884, January 25. A local tsunami was reported to have occurred on the coast near San Francisco (Soloviev and Go, 1975). This is due to a report in Holden (1898) citing Rockwood stating, "Professor George Davidson reported that at 19:24 on January 25th earthquake waves were indicated by the level of the astronomical instruments of Lick Observatory and they continued for twenty minutes." "There is no mention of a local earthquake or any water disturbance. These may have been due to remote long period earthquake waves. Validity 0. (reference #237)

1884, January 25, 19:24. Validity questionable. Fuchs mentions mistakenly a sea wave resulting from the earthquake on the coast at San Francisco (Fuchs, 1887 a). In fact, this relates to the registration of long-period seismic waves from a remote earthquake by instruments at the astronomic observatory at San Francisco (Townley, Allen, 1939). (reference #415)

Every runup

Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.

WhereCountryKm from sourceWater height, mInland, mMeasured byFirst wave, UTCDeaths
San Francisco, CA, CA doubtfulUnited States46Other

More

Every tsunami in 1884The 1800sTsunamis of United StatesThis 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 1147.