August 13, 1965 Tsunami: Vanuatu Islands
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake began at Vanuatu Islands on August 13, 1965 at 12:40:32 UTC. The water rose as high as 2 meters. Its effects were recorded at 2 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
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
- August 13, 1965, 12:40:32 UTC
- Source
- Vanuatu Islands
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7.4, 33 km deep
- Maximum water height
- 2 m (6.6 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 2
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 1
- Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
- 1
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Probable tsunami
- Source location
- 15.900° S, 166.800° E
The toll
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Few (about 1 to 50)
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:
1965, August 13. Validity 2. One of the small aftershocks of the earthquake of August 12 generated a tsunami 2 m high, as a result of which several small vessels were lost and coastal structures were destroyed on the western shore of Espiritu Santo Island. The instrumental records of this and the other aftershocks have intensive T phases.
Reference #3459:
1965, August 13. There was no tsunami associated with two of the main shocks, although their epicentres were at sea; but the small aftershock of August 13 produced a tsunami 2 metres high.
Reference #13893:
[…] the main aftershock on 13 August (Mw 7.4 at 12:40 UTC) was followed by a 2m high tsunami that caused the loss of small ships on the west coast of Espiritu Santo and the destruction of coastal installations (Benoit and Dubois, 1971). The information provided by Benoit and Dubois (1971), who surveyed the islands after the event, is considered herein. A school on Malo Island was also partly flooded by a tsunami on 13 August at 14:00 UTC (Louat and Baldassari, 1989, [ref #13894]).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malo | Vanuatu | 51 | Eyewitness observation of water height | day 13, 14:00 | |||
| Espiritu Santo Island | Vanuatu | 72 | 2 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1965The 1900sTsunamis of VanuatuThe 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 1974.