May 25, 1889 Tsunami: Mindoro Island, Philippines

Reference #414:

1889, May 26, 1889, 2:23 [local time]. There was a destructive earthquake in Batangas Province and on the north of Mindoro Island. The tide gauge which had recently been installed at Manila observatory registered waves in the well of the instrument with an amplitude of 10 cm and a somewhat smaller rise in water level.

Reference #10958:

In the tide gauge at Manila, the instrument detected a less than 10 cm rise in sea level (Manila Observatory Record, ---?; Maso, 1895; Repetti, 1946; Soloviev, 1970?; Nakamura, 1978). Iida et al (1967) thinks this could be a river seiche rather than a tsunami. Based on intensity distribution and current knowledge on location of earthquake source zones, Bautista and Oike (2000) placed the epicenter at 13.15N. lat; 121.10 E. long. or at the northern plain of Mindoro Island along the Aglubang River Fault. It is notable that although the slight increase in water level was measured by the mareograph in the Manila Observatory which was located in Manila, no correlative change in water level was reported in the offshore area north of Mindoro Island. Based on existing information, the probability of tsunami occurrence is ranked as “possible”.