April 13, 1923 Tsunami: Kamchatka, Russia

About 15-20 minutes after the earthquake, at approximately 0215, a wave from the sea poured onto the Denby cannery but caused no damage. Fifteen minutes after the first wave a second wave moved in from the southwest with a height of 11 m. It destroyed the structures on the sandspit and in southwestern part of Ust'-Kamchatsk, passed up the river to the Ozernaia tributary and heaped up fragments of buildings and ice in it. The Kamchatka River was opened about a km and a half above its mouth; a new mouth was formed alongside the former one. The old Denby cannery and the storehouses with goods and products were destroyed and in part washed into the ocean. Eighteen men were killed. The building of the radio-station survived but it was crammed with chunks of ice. The new Denby cannery suffered only in part. Of six cutter belonging to the Denby firm, four were jammed in the ice of the Ozernaia channel and the two others were thrown ashore.

In the southwest part of Ust'-Kamchatsk six dwellings and several storage sheds, ice-houses, and smokehouses were destroyed, nine houses were half destroyed, animals were killed, many nets, boats, clothes and domestic utensils were completely spoiled. The ebb and flow int he river continued for a considerable time.

At first there was no information concerning the fate of the Tsutsumi and Nichiro canneries (it was impossible to get to them as the water had poured out over the tundra and the snow was greatly thinned out). At one plant was seen a heap of wreckage, the other was covered with masses of ice.

On April 23 two Japanese, workers of the Tsutsumi cannery, came to Berezovy Yar. They had had to flee 2.5 km from the wave, which advanced with a great noise. They were saved only thanks to the fact that the wave was held back by the deep snow. Thereafter the Japanese wandered for eight days over the flooded tundra without food or sleep until they stumbled onto the settlement.

In summer it was found out that both factories were completely destroyed. On the whole, as Troshin and Diagliev indicate, the tsunami extended along the northwest coast of the Gulf of Kamchatka from Cape Shubert to Perevoloka [an extension of the Denby sandpit, it separates Lake Nerpich'e from the Gulf of Kamchatka]. In the area of First Creek the wave had the greatest height. Wreckage from the Nichiro cannery was carried up the valley of that creek. One of the cannery's cutters was thrown across a low coastal terrace about 1 km. broad and dropped on a slope at a height of about 20 m. In the valley trees were torn up by the roots over a distance of 7-8 km.

On the banks of Second Creek the destruction was on a smaller scale. Here the wave extended not more than 4.5 km from the mouth. To the northeast of First Creek, inthe area of the Tsutsumi cannery, the wave passed to the north over the tundra only 4km, and Ust'-Kamchats, which is 1 km from the shore of the sea, was affected only on the southwest. Farther east towards Perevoloka the wave was still smaller. The radio station and cannery No. 1 suffered only on the side facing the sea. At Perevoloka the wave was no bigger than a storm wave; drifting timbers and sea week were thrown up on shore 50-70 m.

Intense tsunamis spread, apparently, also in a southeast direction from the center of the earthquake. Thus, a wave about 4 m high lashed Bering I.

(above from reference #413)

April 13, 1923, 1530 GMT. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake off the east coast of Kamchatka, Russia, generated a 20-m tsunami that caused some damage there and in Korea. (reference #237)

April 13, 1923, 15:30 UTC, 56.5 N, 162.5 E, magnitude 7.2 MS. Ust'Kamchatka 20 m, many ships, houses, factories destroyed. Tsunami reached Japan, San Francisco, Hawaiian Is. (reference #150)

Tokio advices state that 400 persons are missing as the result of a tidal wave on the eastern coast of Korea. The total number of lives lost is unknown, but it is believed to be large. (reference #8700)