March 6, 1895 Tsunami: Solomon Sea, Papua New Guinea

On March 6, 1895, at 6:35 p.m. [local time] when anchored in the Trobriand Group off the small island of Yaga; latitude 8o 32.5'S, longitude 151o 02.5'E, the shock of an earthquake was felt. The ship heaved and trembled for over a minute. The motion was slight but marked, and was very like the motion imparted to the ship by the action of the screw when it is reversed and the fore part of the ship is aground. So far as I saw, the shock did not affect the surface of the sea near the vessel. On our arrival at Kavatari next morning we found that the earthquake had been felt on shore at that place. It had caused the trees to sway and a cavity had been formed near the village. The cavity, a few yards in diameter and about four feet deep at its deepest part, had apparently been due to the giving way of the covering of an underground hollow.

On the following day we reached the island of Sim-Sim and learned that earthquake shocks had been felt in the evening of March 6th, and that the island had also suffered from a wave of the sea. The account given us by a native of the earthquake and the wave was this: A little after sunset they experienced a shock, then followed a loud booming sound apparently not very far off, then another shock. After this there was a lull for a short time, and then they heard the noise of the advancing wave, which almost immediately afterwards swept over the flat. The waters knocked the frail native houses down and swept portions of them, together with household goods, into the sea. One little child was drowned, and one man we saw that received some severe abrasions of the skin.

A native of Buna village, says that 'about 11 years ago (1895) the water came up in the same way but very much higher, and he gave me the names of 26 people of Buna who lost their lives. A report states 'My information indicates that it was a true earthquake-induced tidal wave or tsunami - the sea receded some distance before the wave came in. The wave traveled inland some 4 miles south to about the area of Ononda. I interviewed MacKenzie on 14.9.71. He was not able to tell me a lot except that his father was a small boy at the time, and that the wave was probably about 20 ft high and it had left Nixon in some thorn bushes.'

When we reached Cape Vogel on March 21, we learned from the natives there that a short time back a great wave had struck the shore, apparently in Porlock Bay. News of the catastrophe had come down the coast to Cape Vogel. The natives could not give the date, but the time they gave was a little after dark, which corresponds with the time the water swept on Sim-Sim. The natives said that four small villages in Porlock Bay which are close to each other were washed away and some people drowned.

(above from reference #99)

Reports indicate that the tsunami was very localised and/or directional, the water receded first then returned as a 6m high tsunami at Sim-Sim yet no impact was observed on Kawa only 20km away. A ‘great wave' was reported in Porlock Bay on the Papuan Peninsula west of the Trobriand

Islands where four villages were washed away, some of the villagers drowned. At Buna it is reported that 26 people drowned (Everingham, 1977). We have assumed the tsunami height there was 3 to 5m to cause the damage reported. At Simbang (near Finschhafen) the detailed sea-level observations made by missionary J. G. Pfalzer describe a typical tsunami with run-up of about 1m. (reference #11522)