June 12, 2010 Tsunami: Little Nicobar Island, India
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake began at Little Nicobar Island, India on June 12, 2010 at 19:26:50 UTC. The water rose as high as 0.03 meters. Its effects were recorded at 2 places in at least 2 countries.
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
- June 12, 2010, 19:26:50 UTC
- Source
- Little Nicobar Island, India
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7.5, 35 km deep
- Maximum water height
- 0.03 m (0.1 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 2
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 7.881° N, 91.936° 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.
On 12 June 2010, a large (Mw 7.5) earthquake occurred off Car Nicobar, with its source located within the rupture zone of the 2004 Andaman–Sumatra Mw 9.2 plate boundary event (Fig. 1a). This earthquake did not cause any loss of life or damage to property, but was widely felt in the island of Car Nicobar and led to a tsunami alert in the Indian Ocean [...] The 2010 earthquake did not cause any perceptible sea surge even at Car Nicobar (reference #12874)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Itb04 | India | 316 | 0.02 | Deep ocean gauge (half the maximum wave height) | |||
| Trincomalee | Sri Lanka | 1,182 | 0.03 | Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height) | day 12, 21:09 |
More
Every tsunami in 2010The 2000sTsunamis of IndiaThe 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 2026-10-01. NCEI tsunami event 4902.