August 20, 1977 Tsunami: Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 5.5 earthquake began at Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea on August 20, 1977. The water rose as high as 0.5 meters.
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
- August 20, 1977
- Source
- Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 5.5
- Maximum water height
- 0.5 m (1.6 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
- -1
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Erroneous entry
- Source location
- 1.100° S, 146.200° 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.
Reference #45 (United States Earthquakes, 1977, p. 61) describes a tsunami on August 20, 1977, which is a typo, it should have described a tsunami on August 28, 1977.
More
Every tsunami in 1977The 1900sTsunamis of Papua New GuineaThis 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 2093.