December 29, 1897 Tsunami: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
A tsunami caused by an earthquake began at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on December 29, 1897 at 10:32 UTC.
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
The tsunami
- Date
- December 29, 1897, 10:32 UTC
- Source
- Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- The earthquake
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 18.500° N, 69.950° W
The toll
- Damage
- Moderate (about $1 to $5 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses destroyed
- Few (about 1 to 50) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses damaged
- Many (101 to 1,000) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
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 #1492:
1897, December 29, 06:32 (local time). 19.3 N, 71.5 W. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Puerto Playa, Dominican Republic. A powerful 1 1/2-minute shock at Port-au-Prince, Haiti [R-F=V], was recorded instrumentally at Cecchi, and world-wide at Rome, Ischia, and Catania, Italy; Shide, England; Toronto, Canada; and Nicolaiew, Russia. It was felt forcibly at Mirebalais and Jacmel, Haiti. At Santo
Domingo (Dominican Republic), ground subsided and great cracks formed, but where houses had been built on pilings none tumbled down in spite of R-F=IX-X intensities. The
submarine cable break east of Puerto Playa may have been triggered by a submarine landslide, according to Taber. He said major "sea-waves" were not reported for the disasters of 1564 or 1783, nor for this event. Nevertheless, a submarine collapse that broke underwater cables may have produced a tsunami. Forster established that, in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece, submarine landslides triggered by earthquakes, which resulted in submarine cable breaks, were responsible for the majority of "seismic sea waves" accompanying local earthquakes. Forster, 1890; Scherer, 1912; Taber, 1922b, Woodring, 1924. V1.
More
Every tsunami in 1897The 1800sTsunamis of Dominican RepublicThe earthquakeThis 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 5621.