October 6, 1914 Tsunami: Tolaga Bay, North Island, New Zealand
A tsunami caused by an earthquake and a landslide began at Tolaga Bay, North Island, New Zealand on October 6, 1914 at 19:15 UTC. It killed 1 person, 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
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
- October 6, 1914, 19:15 UTC
- Source
- Tolaga Bay, North Island, New Zealand
- Cause
- Earthquake and landslide
- Earthquake
- The earthquake
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 37.800° S, 178.200° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 1 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Moderate (about $1 to $5 million) 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.
The October 06 1914 UT October 07 0646 NZMT MS6.7 East Cape earthquake triggered a small landslide at Cook's Cove, near Tolaga Bay causing a small tsunami, which swept out to sea and apparently caused no significant effects or waves on the nearby coast. Intensity of shaking at nearby Tolaga Bay was MM6. A validity of 4 is assigned.
More
Every tsunami in 1914The 1900sTsunamis of New ZealandThe 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 5542.