October 24, 1956 Tsunami: Nicaragua
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake began at Nicaragua on October 24, 1956 at 14:42:18 UTC.
Where the waves reached
The source of the tsunami. No runup with a place is recorded for it.
- Under 1 m
- 1 to 3 m
- 3 to 10 m
- 10 to 30 m
- 30 m and more
- Height not recorded
The tsunami
- Date
- October 24, 1956, 14:42:18 UTC
- Source
- Nicaragua
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7.1, 35 km deep
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Erroneous entry
- Source location
- 11.862° N, 86.556° W
The toll
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 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.
Reference #14226 lists a unreliable tsunami observation, citing ref #8015. However, reference #8015 does not describe tsunami observations.
More
Every tsunami in 1956The 1900sTsunamis of NicaraguaThe earthquakeThis day in weather historyAlerts 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 6080.