July 11, 1927 Tsunami: Dead Sea, Israel
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake began at Dead Sea, Israel on July 11, 1927 at 13:04 UTC. The water rose as high as 1 meters. It killed 268 people, 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
The tsunami
- Date
- July 11, 1927, 13:04 UTC
- Source
- Dead Sea, Israel
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 6.3
- Maximum water height
- 1 m (3.3 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Questionable tsunami
- Source location
- 32.000° N, 35.500° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 268 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 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 simultaneity of the earthquake and submarine slumping is corroborated by eyewitness reports that described a wave that rose suddenly in the middle of the Dead Sea and piled water 1m high along its north shore. The displaced bottom mass generated by the slump event would have provided the impulse for the observed wave. An eyewitness described the wave as moving northward from a point within the middle of the north Dead Sea basin. This evidence supports the interpretation that the wave was caused by the slumping rather than by an oscillation of the lake level-ie., a seiche. (reference #4705)
More
Every tsunami in 1927The 1900sTsunamis of IsraelThe 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 4416.