July 6, 1965 Tsunami: North Corinth Gulf, Greece
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake and a landslide began at North Corinth Gulf, Greece on July 6, 1965 at 03:18:45 UTC. The water rose as high as 3 meters. Its effects were recorded at 2 places. It killed 2 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
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
- July 6, 1965, 03:18:45 UTC
- Source
- North Corinth Gulf, Greece
- Cause
- Earthquake and landslide
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 6.1, 18 km deep
- Maximum water height
- 3 m (9.8 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 2
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 2
- Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
- 4.3
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Probable tsunami
- Source location
- 38.384° N, 22.545° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 1; 2 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Injuries
- 6 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million); Severe (about $5 to $25 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses destroyed
- 70 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Houses damaged
- 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.
July 6, 1965, 03:18 UTC, 38.4 22.3 E, depth 18 km, magnitude 6.3, intensity VIII, tsunami intensity 2. Ionian Sea, Gulf of Corinth. An earthquake occurred. A strip of dry land 100 m long and 10 m wide was observed to slip off into the water along the southern shore of the Gulf of Corinth. As a result of the landslide, a person who had been sleeping on the shore drowned. Fissures 30 m long and 5 m wide were formed on the bottom of the Guy of Galaxidi. Weak oscillations of the water level were observed in the Bay of Itea. (listed as Possible tsunami) (reference #2130)
July 6, 1965, 03:18:42 UTC, 38 deg 16 min N, 22 deg 18 min E, magnitude 6.3, tsunami intensity 3. Definite tsunami(reference #2427)
1965 07 06, Eratini, NW Corinth Gulf, Central Greece: Strong (M=6.5), damaging shock. Coastal landslide at Eratini caused a local tsunami as high as 3 m. One person drowned and some damage was caused. Definite tsunami. (reference #10357)
July 6, 1965, 03:18 UTC, 38.25 N, 22.3 E, earthquake landslide caused tsunami. Definite tsunami. (reference #11164)
Landslides blocked some secondary roads and slumping of a part of the coast set off a small sea-wave that caused additional damage on the coasts of the Gulf of Corint [...] On the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, at Eratini, a small village of 500 inhabitants, the shock of July caused some additional damage by shaking down a few old masonry houses that had already been damaged by the previous shocks. According to our observations the intensity of the shock did not exceed VI (MM) but it caused about 1,000 square meters of the waterfront to slump into the sea and sink 6 meters below sea level, Figure 11. As a result of this, and perhaps of submarine slumps in other parts of the coast, a wave 3 meters high surged on the coast drowning one person and causing some damage to property. The wave was about 1 meter high on land at Eratini and flooded the lower parts of the village (reference #13256)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxidi | Greece | 14 | Eyewitness observation of water height | 1 | |||
| Eratini | Greece | 27 | 1 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1965The 1900sTsunamis of GreeceThe 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 1972.