February 9, 2018 Tsunami: Kadovar Island, Papua New Guinea

Name: February 9, 2018 Tsunami: Kadovar Island, Papua New Guinea
Start: 2018-02-09
Location: Kadovar Island, Papua New Guinea

February 9, 2018 · 1 m · Definite tsunami

A tsunami caused by a volcano began at Kadovar Island, Papua New Guinea on February 9, 2018. The water rose as high as 1 meters. Its effects were recorded at 1 place.

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: February 9, 2018
Source: Kadovar Island, Papua New Guinea
Cause: Volcano
Volcano: The eruption that caused it
Maximum water height: 1 m (3.3 ft)
Runups recorded: 1
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Definite tsunami
Source location: 3.608° S, 144.588° 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.

RVO reported that on 9 February the lava dome at Kadovar's SE Coastal Vent collapsed, causing 5-6 minor tsunamis, less than 1 m high, observed by residents on Blup Blup's E and W coasts. The waves were reported at 1050, before the main collapse of the dome. In a 12 February report RVO noted that activity from Main Crater consisted of white plumes rising 20 m and drifting a few kilometers SE and weak nighttime crater incandescence. (reference #2432)

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
Blup Blup Island, Shouten Islands	Papua New Guinea	12	1		Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 2018 The 2000s Tsunamis of Papua New Guinea The eruption 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 5676.