July 9, 1895 Tsunami: Piegon Bay, New Zealand
A tsunami caused by a landslide began at Piegon Bay, New Zealand on July 9, 1895 at 05:30 UTC. The water rose as high as 5 meters.
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
- July 9, 1895, 05:30 UTC
- Source
- Piegon Bay, New Zealand
- Cause
- Landslide
- Maximum water height
- 5 m (16.4 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 43.688° S, 172.900° 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.
Reference #5324:
1895, July 10. Runup 3-5m. According to the Christchurch newspaper, The Star, dated 11 July 1895, a large landslide fell into Pigeon Bay from near Holmes Bay at 6 pm on 10 July 1895, creating a surge that crossed the 800 m width of the bay and swept over a wharf and embankment, across the road and up to a plantation beside one of the residents' homesteads. The surge lifted 90 kg rocks onto the road, and tore out fences and trees. The landslide occurred during a period of severe weather conditions.
A landslip which occurred on Tuesday [July 10] at 6 pmc and completely block the traffic from Holmes Bay to Pigeon Bay by road. The slip was on Mr Holmes's property. Its magnitude can only be fully understood by those acquainted with the bay, but some idea of the force with which the great mass of earth broke away from the steep hill sides on the Holmes's Bay side of the harbour can be gathered from the fact that upon rushing into the sea it created a wave which swept across the bay towards the wharf in front of Messrs Hay's homestead with sufficient violence to hurl huge rocks from the seaside over the embankment, and onto the road. The distance from where the debris went into the sea across the bay to where the wave struck is not less than half a mile, and it is said that some of the rocks lifted by its force and hurled across the road are over 200 pounds in weight. The rush of water swept clean over the wharf, across the road, and up to the plantation alongside Messrs Hay's residence, carrying before it fences, trees, and in fact, everything that offered the least resistance to its progress." (The Star, 11 July 1895)
Reference #11688:
There was another landslip at Pigeon Bay which must have been of extraordinary dimensions. It started at six o'clock last night [July 9], and rushed into the sea with such force as to raise a tremendous wave, which swept across Pigeon Bay (from the Holme's Bay side) and swamped the road, the distance being half a mile. A number of families in the Pigeon Bay locality are leaving their homes--the Messrs Hay among them--fearing further slips, the hills being dangerously fissured.
More
Every tsunami in 1895The 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 5627.