September 11, 1930 Tsunami: Stromboli Island, Italy

Name: September 11, 1930 Tsunami: Stromboli Island, Italy
Start: 1930-09-11
Location: Stromboli Island, Italy

September 11, 1930 · 2.5 m · 6 deaths · Definite tsunami

A tsunami caused by a volcano began at Stromboli Island, Italy on September 11, 1930 at 09:52 UTC. The water rose as high as 2.5 meters. Its effects were recorded at 2 places. It killed 6 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: September 11, 1930, 09:52 UTC
Source: Stromboli Island, Italy
Cause: Volcano
Volcano: The eruption that caused it
Maximum water height: 2.5 m (8.2 ft)
Runups recorded: 2
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 3
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Definite tsunami
Source location: 38.789° N, 15.213° E

The toll

Deaths: 1; 6 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Injuries: 20 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 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.

1930, September 11, 09:52 UTC. 38o48'N, 15o12'E. Tsunami intensity 3, reliability 4. Strong sea retreat/flood Stromboli, inundation 250 m. (reference #4139)

1930, September 11. Three people killed by pyroclastic flows and a fourth died after being scalded in the sea near the point where the flows reached the coast. One person died from a tsunami and another from a falling block. (reference #9675)

1930, September 11. A catastrophic eruption occurred on Stromboli on 11 September 1930. It was heralded by strong explosions and hot avalanches, and reached its climax with a lava flow along with a tsunami (Rittmann, 1931, ref #5043). Six people were killed and 20 injured; moreover, huge damage was reported at all the villages of the island (Abbruzzese, 1936, ref #10539). (reference #10187)

1930, September 11. Hot avalanche and blocks, bombs and scoria fallout on Ginostra, a block of 30 tons destroys the semaphore of Labronzo, up to 150 kg blocks fall on the village of Stromboli, tsunami, secondary lava flows, 6 deaths, 22 injured... The largest tsunami was that of 1930 which produced a wave of 2.5 m which entered the beach of Punta Lena for about 300 m and killed one person. (reference #10534)

1930 September 11, Aeolian Islands, Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy: During an explosion in Stromboli the sea retired c. I 00 m and penetrated the beach for 200 m. The run-up was about 2.5 m. It appears that this local tsunami was triggered by hot avalanches. (reference #10537)

1930 September 11. A tsunami followed the explosion and was responsible of two more fatalities. Eyewitnesses reported that just before the end of the paroxysm the sea at Sopra Lena retreated by about 100 m and then flooded the beach by 200 m in 3 min. At Piscita`, in the Eolo’s grotto, a fisherman, who was trying to take shelter from the rain of burning lava, ran towards the sea and a wave, boiling hot due to the heat of the lava that had come in contact with the sea water, attacked him causing mortal scolds (Abruzzese, 1936). The second victim was drowned by the wave at San Vincenzo [...] It is worth pointing out that this tsunami is the only one known to have caused fatalities among the events of the Aeolian Islands (reference #3078)

1930 September 11. A tsunami followed the explosion and was responsible of two of the six victims. This tsunami is the only one known to have caused fatalities among the events of the Aeolian Islands. At Sopra Lena, the sea retired for 100 m and then flooded the beach for 200 m in 3 minutes. Run-up about 2.5 m (Abbruzzese, 1936; Imbo, 1928). (reference #11164)

Note: death at Piscita due to the heat of the lava that had come in contact with the sea water, not attribute to tsunami in NCEI database. As a result only 1 tsunami death (at Punta Lena / San Vincenzo beach).

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
Punta Lena, Stromboli Island	Italy	3	2.5	250	Eyewitness observation of water height		1
Piscita, Stromboli Island	Italy	3			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1930 The 1900s Tsunamis of Italy The eruption 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 4218.