Tsunamis in 1904

June 25, 1904 Tsunami: Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia

June 25, 1904 · Probable tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake began at Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia on June 25, 1904 at 21:00:36 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

Tsunami warnings in force

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
June 25, 1904, 21:00:36 UTC
Source
Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia
Cause
Earthquake
Earthquake
Magnitude 8.1
Runups recorded
0
Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
1
Waters
Ocean
How certain
Probable tsunami
Source location
52.000° N, 159.000° 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.

Apparently these were the first tsunami-generating earthquakes in the Kurile-Kamchatka zone that were recorded by seismic stations.

B. Gutenberg and C. Richter determined the average values of the coordinates of the epicenter of 52N 150E and the following times of occurrence (Greenwich time) of the main June earthquakes: on the 25th (new style) at 14 hrs 45 min, on the 25th at 21 hrs 00 min, on the 27th at 00 hrs 09 min.

(above from Reference #413)

NOTE: See tsunami event on June 25, 1904 at 1445 UTC for more information on the tsunamis.

More

Every tsunami in 1904The 1900sTsunamis of RussiaThe 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 1313.