June 15, 1928 Tsunami: Sulu Sea, Philippines

Name: June 15, 1928 Tsunami: Sulu Sea, Philippines
Start: 1928-06-15
Location: Sulu Sea, Philippines

June 15, 1928 · Probable tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7 earthquake began at Sulu Sea, Philippines on June 15, 1928 at 06:12:36 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: June 15, 1928, 06:12:36 UTC
Source: Sulu Sea, Philippines
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 7, 33 km deep
Runups recorded: 1
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 0.5
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Probable tsunami
Source location: 12.400° N, 120.900° E

The toll

Damage: Limited (under about $1 million); Moderate (about $1 to $5 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses destroyed: 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:

1928, June 15, 14:13 [local time], 12.4 N, 120.9 E. There was a destructive earthquake off the southwestern tip of Mindoro Island. The force of tremors reached 6-7 degrees (VII-VI11 Rossi-Forel) for a distance of 20 km along the coast. The main destruction occurred in the region of the spit, screening Mangarin Bay. Here ran a railway which connected Mangarin Port with a sugar factory, and stood houses of workers and fishermen. Immediately after the main shocks, the sea surged on land, partly washed out the railway, and inundated the subsided areas of the shore (Maso, 1928).

Reference #10958:

1928, June 15. Soon after the quake, the sea surged inland and partly inundated a railway. Some loose part of the railway embankment were washed away. Prior to the earthquake, it appeared to some eyewitnesses that there was some part of the shore which slid down the sea. Tsunami probability is ranked as “positive”.

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
Mangarin Port, Mindoro Island	Philippines	24			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1928 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 1603.