November 21, 2016 Tsunami: E. Coast Honshu Island, Japan

Name: November 21, 2016 Tsunami: E. Coast Honshu Island, Japan
Start: 2016-11-21
Location: E. Coast Honshu Island, Japan

November 21, 2016 · 1.44 m · Definite tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake began at E. Coast Honshu Island, Japan on November 21, 2016 at 20:59:49 UTC. The water rose as high as 1.44 meters. Its effects were recorded at 44 places in at least 3 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

Tsunami warnings in force

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: November 21, 2016, 20:59:49 UTC
Source: E. Coast Honshu Island, Japan
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 6.9, 9 km deep
Maximum water height: 1.44 m (4.7 ft)
Runups recorded: 44
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Definite tsunami
Source location: 37.393° N, 141.387° E

The toll

Injuries: Few (about 1 to 50) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Damage: Limited (under about $1 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 magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck early on Tuesday local time off the Japanese coast about 70km northeast of Iwaki, Fukushima. The quake, with a depth of 25km, occurred about 6am and tsunami waves began to hit Japan's Pacific coast in numerous areas including Fukushima Prefecture about 7am... By 8am, 1.4m tsunami waves were observed in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, north of Fukushima. (reference #11671)

JMA issued Tsunami Warning for Fukushima prefecture and Tsunami Advisory for other five forecast blocks, including Miyagi prefecture, in about three minutes after the earthquake. After that, based on tsunami observations, JMA further issued Tsunami Advisory for two forecast blocks additionally, and upgraded Advisory to Warning for Miyagi prefecture. Tsunami propagation simulation indicates that the large tsunami waves observed in Miyagi prefecture that triggered warning upgrade were reflected waves on Fukushima coast that traveled rounded route off Fukushima then hit Miyagi coast. Strike angle of this event was not included in JMA's tsunami simulation database for this region, and it was found that the focal mechanism of this event generates larger tsunamis for Miyagi than the mechanism of assumed faults of this region stored in JMA's current tsunami simulation database. (reference #12142)

The earthquake triggered a moderate-size tsunami, which attacked the northern Pacific coast of Japan. Signals of the tsunami were recorded at several coastal tide gauges along northern Pacific coast of Japan. (reference #13926)

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	Measured by	First wave, UTC
Soma	Japan	61	0.83	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 21:53
Onahama	Japan	67	0.6	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 21:29
Ayukawa	Japan	101	0.73	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 21:43
Sendaishinko	Japan	102	1.44	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:11
Ishinomaki	Japan	114	0.66	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:05
Higashi-Matsushima	Japan	120		Eyewitness observation of water height
Oaraiko	Japan	138	0.49	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 21:51
Kashimako	Japan	170	0.26	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 21:53
Ofunato	Japan	183	0.4	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 21:55
Choshi	Japan	188	0.12	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 21:50
Kamaishi	Japan	212	0.23	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:03
Miyako	Japan	256	0.35	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:05
Mera	Japan	308	0.38	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Boso	Japan	309	0.08	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 21:38
Kujiko	Japan	314	0.79	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:26
Okada	Japan	341	0.12	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:08
Hachinohe	Japan	349	0.2	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:39
Tago	Japan	372	0.04	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Irozaki	Japan	384	0.07	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Yaizu	Japan	393	0.1	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Mutsuogawara	Japan	393	0.22	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 23:17
Tsubota	Japan	406	0.1	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Kozushima	Japan	407	0.13	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Ako	Japan	407	0.1	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:06
Omaezaki	Japan	421	0.1	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Mutsushi Sekinehama	Japan	441	0.18	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Tahara	Japan	479	0.11	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Hakodate	Japan	484	0.16	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Kaminato, Hachijo Island	Japan	494	0.15	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:06
Urakawa	Japan	543	0.32	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Tokachiko	Japan	570	0.15	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Shiraoi	Japan	573	0.23	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Tomakomaihigashiko	Japan	579	0.2	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Tomakomainishiko	Japan	582	0.16	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Owase	Japan	596	0.07	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Kumano	Japan	617	0.06	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:51
Uragami	Japan	655	0.1	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:57
Kushimoto	Japan	670	0.1	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 23:18
Kushiro	Japan	707	0.15	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Kiritappu	Japan	707	0.15	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 21, 22:40
Hanasaki	Japan	744	0.12	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Chichijima Island	Japan	1,145	0.11	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)
D21416, Kamchatka	Russia	2,067	0.01	Deep ocean gauge (half the maximum wave height)
Midway Islands, HI	US Territories	3,962	0.09	Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height)	day 22, 02:08

Every tsunami in 2016 The 2000s Tsunamis of Japan The earthquake This day in weather history Alerts 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 5618.