August 20, 2016 Tsunami: Sanriku, Japan
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 6 earthquake began at Sanriku, Japan on August 20, 2016 at 09:01:26 UTC. The water rose as high as 0.01 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, 2016, 09:01:26 UTC
- Source
- Sanriku, Japan
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 6, 10 km deep
- Maximum water height
- 0.01 m (0.0 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 40.394° N, 143.680° 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 20 August 2016, a moderate earthquake occurred off Sanriku, in northeastern Japan, and a tsunami with a height of less than 1 cm was recorded by a new seafloor tsunami observation network. (reference #12660)
More
Every tsunami in 2016The 2000sTsunamis of JapanThe 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 5741.