June 16, 1929 Tsunami: Tasman Sea, New Zealand

Name: June 16, 1929 Tsunami: Tasman Sea, New Zealand
Start: 1929-06-16
Location: Tasman Sea, New Zealand

June 16, 1929 · 2.5 m · 17 deaths · Questionable tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake and a landslide began at Tasman Sea, New Zealand on June 16, 1929 at 22:47:32 UTC. The water rose as high as 2.5 meters. Its effects were recorded at 2 places in at least 2 countries. It killed 17 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: June 16, 1929, 22:47:32 UTC
Source: Tasman Sea, New Zealand
Cause: Earthquake and landslide
Earthquake: Magnitude 7.5
Maximum water height: 2.5 m (8.2 ft)
Runups recorded: 2
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 1.5
Tsunami magnitude (Iida): 1.3
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Questionable tsunami
Source location: 41.750° S, 172.250° E

The toll

Deaths: 17 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses destroyed: 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.

There was an earthquake with its source in the west of Nelson Province, in Buller county. The earthquake was caused by earth movements within a system of fractures and was accompanied by numerous landslides, cave-ins, avalanches, etc. Many landslides occurred on the western shore of South Island. The largest of these was the landslide at Cape White Cliffs to the south of Caramia. The tongue of the landslide had risen considerably, and part of the former ocean floor of about 2 km (1 mile) in length and more than 90 m (300 feet) in width, had been lifted 12 m (40 feet). In Karamea, according to the words of one captain, a tidal wave with a height of 2.5 m (8 feet) moved through the area without causing any kind of damage.

Sea level fluctuations of up to 10 cm and with periods of about 45+/- minutes were recorded by a tide gauge at Fort Denison, in Sydney. The most intensive fluctuations were recorded 30-40 hours after the earthquake.

(above from reference #415)

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
Karamea	New Zealand	57	2.5		Eyewitness observation of water height
Fort Denison, Sydney Harbor	Australia	2,041	0.1		Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)

Every tsunami in 1929 The 1900s Tsunamis of New Zealand 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 1618.