November 4, 1952 Tsunami: Kamchatka, Russia

The magnitude 9.0 Mw earthquake off the east coast of Kamchatka generated a 13-meter wave locally. The waves struck the Hawaiian Islands at 1:00 pm. Property damage from these waves in the Hawaiian Islands was estimated at $800,000 to $1,000,000; however no lives were lost. It also caused damage on the west coast of the United States and was observed on tide gauges throughout the Pacific Basin.

Reference #79 lists considerable damage and considerable loss of life in the Kuril Islands.

The waves of the tsunami of 4-5 November 1952 were noted from Iturup l. on the south (height of wave 2.5 m.) to the village of Shubertovo near Ust'-Kamchatsk (wave height 0.5-1 m.) and had destructive force over an extent of more than 700 km. of the Pacific coast -- from Onekotan l. on the south to the Kronotsky Peninsula (Kamchatka) on the north. The morphology of the shores and the relief of the bottoms of bays and straits played an important role in the heightening of the waves upon their arrival at the coast; waves which were imperceptible to ships on the open ocean, at the coast transformed themselves into terrible battering rams, which not only destroyed installations but changed the coastal relief, washing away sandy soils and causing landslides... The greatest destruction and suffering of 4-5 November were caused by the tsunami which arose as a result of the earthquake and which took in about 700 km of the east coasts of Kamchatka and the Kuril Is. On the average the height of the waves on the coast reached 6-7 m. In Kamchatka and on the Kuril Is. destructive sea waves appeared 30-40 minutes after the earthquake. At most points the beginning phase of the waves was accompanied by a lowering of the level of the ocean. Hence it follows that the actual moment of appearance of the waves on the coast occurred half a period earlier. (reference #4252)

Kurilske was about 15 thousand inhabitants, about 4 thousand perished, extensive destruction... (reference #9224)

Because of the absence of casualties in the far field, this event was often perceived as involving a deceptive tsunami, as no reports were available from the near field. The 1952 Kamchatka tsunami was, in fact, a closely guarded state secret in the then-USSR, especially since we now know that it had eradicated the sensitive naval base at Severo-Kuril'sk. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, information started to slowly trickle out in the form either of dissemination abroad of existing reports or of studies resulting from new research into this matter. Among the latter, Smyshlyaev (ref #11472) reported 7,802 civilian deaths in the Northern Kurils, and estimated that the total death toll in the city of Severo-Kuril'sk, including military casualties, must have reached 10,000 and perhaps as high as 17,000, making the event by far the deadliest tsunami in the twentieth century. (reference #9223)

Present day estimates based on the existed data on population density in the area and available damage reports from some selected coastal locations show that minimum number of victims was about 4000 people with estimated maximum as high as 14000 fatalities (Smyshlyaev, 2003; ref #11472). Based on this, the most realistic estimate for the fatality level can be adopted as 10,000 people, the majority of which (more than 99%) were killed by tsunami. (reference #11763) Note: according to ref#14377 the “official death toll” from the tsunami was 2,336.

The source of 1952 earthquake was located in two time zones. According to Greenwich (UTC), the earthquake happened on November 4 at 16 hours 58 minutes. In Kamchatka (+12 hours) at this time was November 5, 4-58 am, and in Kuril Islands, which live in Sakhalin time (+11 hours) was 3-58 am. So, local people from Severo-Kurilsk use the time 4 am for the earthquake (reference #12048)