February 23, 1959 Tsunami: Grecian Archipelago, Crete, Greece

Name: February 23, 1959 Tsunami: Grecian Archipelago, Crete, Greece
Start: 1959-02-23
Location: Grecian Archipelago, Crete, Greece

February 23, 1959 · 1 m · Very doubtful tsunami

A tsunami of unknown cause began at Grecian Archipelago, Crete, Greece on February 23, 1959. The water rose as high as 1 meters. Its effects were recorded at 4 places.

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: February 23, 1959
Source: Grecian Archipelago, Crete, Greece
Cause: Unknown
Maximum water height: 1 m (3.3 ft)
Runups recorded: 4
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 3
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Very doubtful tsunami
Source location: 40.630° N, 22.970° E

The toll

The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this tsunami.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

1959, February 23. Aegean Sea, islands and northern Greece. Waves of the following heights were observed: 1 m in Thessaloniki, 0.5 m on the Island of Crete, 0.3 m

in the Strait of Salaminu (Piraeus) and on the Island of Leros. There was no earthquake. Most likely, seiche oscillations of the sea took place. (reference #2130)

On 7 May 1991 an exceptional sea-wave was observed in the Laki Bay, Leros Island, SE Aegean Sea, Greece. The oscillatory nature of the wave and its period (12 mins), as

indicated from tide-gauge records, are consistent with a seiche disturbance expected from the dimensions of the Laki Bay water volume. The lack of any tectonic movement implies that this seiche probably was a storm surge. On the basis of this evidence earlier Aegean seawaves not correlated with tectonic movements may also be interpreted as storm surges. This includes the sea-waves observed on 23-25 April 1928, 23 February 1959 and 6 June 1961.(reference #2753)

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
Thessaloniki	Greece	0	1
Salamis	Greece	299	0.3
Leros	Greece	513	0.3
Island of Crete	Greece	632	0.5

Every tsunami in 1959 The 1900s Tsunamis of Greece 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 1888.