563 Tsunami: Lake Geneva, Switzerland
A tsunami caused by a landslide began at Lake Geneva, Switzerland in 563.
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
- 563
- Source
- Lake Geneva, Switzerland
- Cause
- Landslide
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- A lake or river, not the ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 46.360° N, 6.820° E
The toll
- Deaths
- Few (about 1 to 50); Many (about 101 to 1,000) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
- Damage
- Moderate (about $1 to $5 million); Severe (about $5 to $25 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
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.
[…] historical accounts report a rockfall in AD 563 , the so-called Tauredunum event , in the mountains more than 70 km from Geneva, where the Rhone River enters the lake. There are no reports suggesting that the Tauredunum rockfall was triggered by an earthquake, but we know that it destroyed several villages and caused a large number of casualties. Both historical accounts describe how a tsunami, generated in Lake Geneva by the rockfall, inundated everything on the lake shore, devastated villages with their inhabitants and herds of animals, destroyed the Geneva bridge and mills, and entered the city of Geneva , passing over the city walls , and killed several people. (reference #10018)
More
Every tsunami in 563The 500sTsunamis of SwitzerlandAlerts 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 6057.