March 31, 1928 Tsunami: East Aegean, Greece

Name: March 31, 1928 Tsunami: East Aegean, Greece
Start: 1928-03-31
Location: East Aegean, Greece

March 31, 1928 · 170 deaths · 2,600 houses destroyed · Very doubtful tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake began at East Aegean, Greece on March 31, 1928 at 00:29:47 UTC. Its effects were recorded at 1 place. It killed 170 people, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.

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 31, 1928, 00:29:47 UTC
Source: East Aegean, Greece
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 6.5
Runups recorded: 1
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 2
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Very doubtful tsunami
Source location: 38.100° N, 27.400° E

The toll

Deaths: 170 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Injuries: 700 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage: Extreme (about $25 million or more) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses destroyed: 2,600 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses damaged: Many (101 to 1,000) 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.

1928, March 31, 00:30 UTC. 38.1 N, 27.1 E, magnitude 6.5, intensity IX-X, tsunami intensity 2. Aegean Sea, Asia Minor, Izmir. An earthquake and weak tsunami 0.5 m high took place. (reference #2130)

1928, March 31, 00:39 UTC. 38o06'N, 27o24'E, earthquake magnitude 6.5, intensity IX, tsunami reliability 1. Strong shock in Turkey, especially at Torbali. At Smyrna tsunami intensity II according to Antonopoulos (ref #29) who refers to the Seismological Notes of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (Anonymous, ref #10531). (reference #4139)

1928, March 31. Asia Minor. Smyrna (ii). (reference #15)

1928, March 31. 38.1 N, 27.1 E. Asia Minor, Smyrna (ii). (reference #20)

1928, March 31. Asia Minor, Smyrna (m=ii). 38.1 N, 27.1 E, earthquake intensity IX, magnitude 4.9. The earthquake data have been obtained from V. Karnik (1969). (reference #29)

1928, March 31, 00:29:47 UTC. 38.1 N, 27.4 E, magnitude 6.5. Smyrna (M=2). (reference #330)

1928, March 31, 00:47 UTC. 38o12'N, 27o30'E, magnitude 6.5, intensity IX, tsunami intensity 2, reliability 3. Sea wave in Smyrna. (reference #2427)

1928, March 31, 00:29:47 UTC, tsunami intensity 2, tsunami reliability 2 (questionable). (reference #9275)

1928, March 31, 00:29 UTC, 38.2 N, 27.4 E, tsunami intensity 2, tsunami reliability 1 (improbable). (reference #11164)

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
Izmir (Smyrna)	Turkey	43			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1928 The 1900s Tsunamis of Greece 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 1594.