558 Tsunami: Dodecanese Islands, Greece
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7 earthquake began at Dodecanese Islands, Greece in 558.
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
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
- 558
- Source
- Dodecanese Islands, Greece
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 6
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 37.100° N, 27.700° 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.
558. Dodecanese Islands. 37o06'N, 27o42'E, earthquake magnitude 7, intensity VI, tsunami validity 4, intensity 6. Violent earthquake in the island of Cos that was almost completely destroyed.
The date of the earthquake is debated. Some authors date the shock in 554 (when a destructive earthquake occurred in Costantinople), many other suggest the 558. In Cos the sea rose up to a fantastic height and engulfed all the buildings near the shore, destroying them together with their contents and inhabitants. The heaving mass was of such enormous proportions that it flung down everything there that its surging crests could not ride over (Agathias, r454).
Further references: Galanopoulos (r433), Ambraseys (r391), Papadopoulos (r80), Papazachos (r437), Antonopoulos (r417), Guidoboni (r379, r572), Soloviev (r414), Mallet (r571).
(reference #4139)
More
Every tsunami in 558The 500sTsunamis of GreeceAlerts 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 3765.