January 1, 1919 Tsunami: Fiji Islands
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake began at Fiji Islands on January 1, 1919 at 03:00:34 UTC. The water rose as high as 0.4 meters.
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 1, 1919, 03:00:34 UTC
- Source
- Fiji Islands
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7.8, 485 km deep
- Maximum water height
- 0.4 m (1.3 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Very doubtful tsunami
- Source location
- 19.318° S, 178.080° W
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.
An earthquake occurred wiih the following parameters: Jan 1, 02h 59m 57s; 19.5S 176.5W, 180 km, M=7.75-8, which, as assumed by Imamura and Moniya (1939), generated a tsunami, recorded in Japan with a height of up to 40 cm. In the work of Iida (Ref #79) this assumption is perhaps justifiably criticized.
(above from Reference #415)
Below from Iida (Reference #79):
This tsunami, recorded at Shikoku - Hosojima (0.1m), Kii - Kushimoto (0.4m), Sagami-Aburatsubo mareograph stations was correlated by Imamura and Moriya with this intermediate, focus quake near Tonga. This correlation seems doubtful because: a) Tsunamis are rarely, if ever, associated with quakes of such deep focus; b) the travel times indicated are too great; c) no observations were recorded at intervening places whereas other Tonga tsunamis have had easily observed effects at nearby coasts; d) the relative times of arrival and heights at the several stations are not in accord with an approach from Tonga. The Japan Meteorological Agency (Anon., 1961) had correlated this tsunami alternately with a Philippine quake Jan 1, 01:34, 8N, 126E, M=7.4 (G&R), shallow. The times of arrival are much harder to explain in this case, although the relative times of arrival at the stations are similar to those observed in the 1918 Aug. 15 Philippine tsunami.
1919, January 2, 10:33 [local time]. 8 N, 126 E, magnitude 7.4 MS. Tsunami validity -1 (erroneous). Kushimoto 88cm, Hosojima 27cm, Aburatsubo 7cm. Tsunami occurrence time differs from that expected from the earthquake. (reference #150)
More
Every tsunami in 1919The 1900sTsunamis of FijiThe 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 1464.