Tsunamis in 1905

September 8, 1905 Tsunami: Tyrrhenian Calabria, Italy

September 8, 1905 · 1.3 m · 557 deaths · 6,700 houses destroyed · Definite tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake began at Tyrrhenian Calabria, Italy on September 8, 1905 at 01:43:11 UTC. The water rose as high as 1.3 meters. It killed 557 people, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.

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
September 8, 1905, 01:43:11 UTC
Source
Tyrrhenian Calabria, Italy
Cause
Earthquake
Maximum water height
1.3 m (4.3 ft)
Runups recorded
0
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
4
Waters
Ocean
How certain
Definite tsunami
Source location
38.670° N, 16.070° E

The toll

Deaths
557 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Injuries
2,000 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage
Extreme (about $25 million or more) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses destroyed
6,700 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.

1905, September 8 01:43:11 UTC. 38.56 N, 16.07 E, magnitude 7.1. This is one of the strongest events occurred in southern Italy. Destructions in many localities, more than 550 victims and 2,000 injured people. Shock felt in the whole southern Italy, including Sicily.

Sea water rose and lowered many times with a period of 7.5 minutes along the coast of Tyrrhenian Calabria up to Ischia. The tide gauge records of Ischia, Civitavecchia, Naples and Messina are reproduced by Platania (1907).

At Scalea the sea flooded suddenly the beach 30 m, rising about 6 m above the cliff. Fishing boats carried landward (Rizzo, 1907; Platania, 1907; Monti, 1906).

At Pizzo a lot of fish found in the beach and one boat carried 30 m in land (Mercalli, 1906a;

Platania, 1907; Monti, 1906).

At Bivona the sea flooded the beach more than 30 m carrying one fishing boat in land (Rizzo, 1907).

At Briatico along the beach a lot of fish were

found. A fishing boat carried a few meters in land

(Baratta, 1906; Mercalli, 1906a; Rizzo, 1907; Cavasino, 1935; Platania, 1907).

Between Vibo Marina and Tropea some shanties were carried sea ward (reported by Boschi et al., 1995). Flooding seen also at Catanzaro Marina on the Ionian coast of Calabria (reported by Boschi et al., 1995).

At Milazzo the harbour office referred that the sea rose and lowered every 30 min with amplitude of about 80 cm (Platania, 1907).

A telegraph cable connecting the island of Lipari to Milazzo, Sicily, was broken (reported by Boschi et al., 1995).

(above from reference #11164)

More

Every tsunami in 1905The 1900sTsunamis of ItalyThe 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 3411.