January 13, 1941 Tsunami: Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea

Name: January 13, 1941 Tsunami: Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea
Start: 1941-01-13
Location: Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea

January 13, 1941 · 0.15 m · 4 deaths · 1 house destroyed · Definite tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake began at Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea on January 13, 1941 at 16:27:44 UTC. The water rose as high as 0.15 meters. Its effects were recorded at 3 places. It killed 4 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: January 13, 1941, 16:27:44 UTC
Source: Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 7.4, 15 km deep
Maximum water height: 0.15 m (0.5 ft)
Runups recorded: 3
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): -2.5
Tsunami magnitude (Iida): -3.3
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Definite tsunami
Source location: 4.175° S, 152.071° E

The toll

Deaths: 4 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses destroyed: 1 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.

Reference #414:

1941, January 14, 2:28 [local time] 16:27:38 UTC, validity 4, 4.5S, 152.5E, magnitude 7.3. The strongest earthquake since 1916 occurred on the Gazelle Peninsula. The earthquake generated oscillations of the seiche type with a maximal range of 30 cm, periods of about 30 and 8 minutes and a duration of at least 4 1/2 hours in Blanche Bay. These oscillations were registered by the tide gauge at Rabaul. Off North Coast and in the region of Beining, according to visual observations, the water slowly retreated from shore, exposing the reefs to a considerable depth, and then surged back again, submerging them.

Reference #99:

1941, January 14, 02:28. Rabaul, New Britain. A tidal rhythm was set up in Rabaul Harbour and is shown by the tide gauge recording to have had a maximum amplitude from trough to crest of 1 foot and a period of 10 minutes. The total duration of the tidal disturbance was from 2:30 a.m. to 7 a.m., the maximum movement occurring between 3 and 4 a.m. Similar phenomena were reported from the north coast and from the Bainings, the water receding; slowly to leave reefs high and dry and then returning to gush over them.

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	Measured by	First wave, UTC
Rabaul, New Britain	Papua New Guinea	13	0.15	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 1, 16:30
Blanche Bay, New Britain	Papua New Guinea	27		Other
Bainings, New Britain	Papua New Guinea	37		Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1941 The 1900s Tsunamis of Papua New Guinea 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 1744.