April 29, 1978 Tsunami: Rissa, Norway
A tsunami caused by a landslide began at Rissa, Norway on April 29, 1978. The water rose as high as 6.8 meters. It killed 1 person, counting the earthquake or eruption that caused it.
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
- April 29, 1978
- Source
- Rissa, Norway
- Cause
- Landslide
- Maximum water height
- 6.8 m (22.3 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- A lake or river, not the ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 63.560° N, 9.940° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 1 with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
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.
A landslide took place on 29 April, 1978, which covered an area of about 330,000 m2 and contained an estimated volume on the order of 5-6 million m3. A large number of people actually saw the slide taking place and a film is available [...] water waves which were generated by the slide as it entered Lake Botnen caused flooding at Leira, a village at the other end of the lake (reference #13249)
Thirty-nine persons narrowly escaped from the landslide, and one person died [...] The Rissa landslide on the south of Lake Botnen generated a tsunami that damaged the village of Leira at the north end of the lake [...] The maximum run-up height was 6.8 m near the landslide and 3.2 m in the village of Leira. (reference #13250)
More
Every tsunami in 1978The 1900sTsunamis of NorwayThis 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 5851.