January 27, 1915 Tsunami: Ionian Sea, Greece
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake began at Ionian Sea, Greece on January 27, 1915 at 01:09:47 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
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
- January 27, 1915, 01:09:47 UTC
- Source
- Ionian Sea, Greece
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 6.5, 15 km deep
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Questionable tsunami
- Source location
- 38.060° N, 20.263° 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.
Sea waves in Ithaki. (reference #2427)
Sea waves were observed in Ithaki Isl. during this very strong earthquake (Mw6.46). Although the event is listed in one of the existing tsunami catalogs [6], the exact description has not been provided so far. The description reads as follows: “. . .on a observe durant le sisme que la mer etait ondulee”, which reads as follows: “it was observed that during the earthquake the sea was wavy”. However, no additional information has been found. Possibly, standing waves were generated in Vathy Bay in the main village of the island (reference #13999)
More
Every tsunami in 1915The 1900sTsunamis of GreeceThe 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 3502.