March 1, 1922 Tsunami: Sulu Sea, Philippines

Name: March 1, 1922 Tsunami: Sulu Sea, Philippines
Start: 1922-03-01
Location: Sulu Sea, Philippines

March 1, 1922 · Questionable tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6 earthquake began at Sulu Sea, Philippines on March 1, 1922 at 09:10:23 UTC. Its effects were recorded at 1 place.

Where the waves reached

The source (white) and every runup with a place, colored by the water height recorded there. A ring is a runup NCEI marks doubtful.

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: March 1, 1922, 09:10:23 UTC
Source: Sulu Sea, Philippines
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 6, 33 km deep
Runups recorded: 1
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 0.5
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Questionable tsunami
Source location: 9.000° N, 123.250° E

The toll

Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses damaged: Some (about 51 to 100) 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.

Reference #414:

1922, March (mistakenly September) 1, 17:l0. There was an earthquake on the southeast of Negros Island, reaching an intensity of 6-7 degrees (VII-VI11 Rossi-Forel) on the coast from Siaton to Bacong. A monk was sitting on the shore at Bacong at the time of the earthquake. Suddenly the sea rushed towards him, and he took fright, but looking around and seeing the swaying of the trees, he realized that an earthquake was taking place.

Reference #1187:

1922, March 1, 5:01 p.m. SE Negros: Southeast of Negros -

5:01 p.m. earthquake of Intensity VII-VIII, causing some damage to churches and convents, crevasses in the ground

and landslides on the slopes of the hills... Siaton - destructive earthquake; Father Brennan reported that, at the time of the earthquake, he was seated near the seashore; suddenly the sea rushed up towards him and the trees swayed to and fro. The front walls of the convent collapsed, but no casualties.

Every runup

Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.

Where	Country	Km from source	Water height, m	Inland, m	Measured by	First wave, UTC	Deaths
Bacong	Philippines	106			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1922 The 1900s Tsunamis of Philippines The earthquake This day in weather history Alerts 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 1499.