60 BC Tsunami: Cabo San Vicente, Portugal
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake began at Cabo San Vicente, Portugal in 60 BC.
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
- 60 BC
- Source
- Cabo San Vicente, Portugal
- Cause
- Earthquake
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 8.5
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Questionable tsunami
- Source location
- 36.000° N, 10.700° W
The toll
- Damage
- 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.
60 B.C. Earthquake intensity IX, magnitude 6.7. Event reliability 1 (improbable). Historical information on seismic events during the Roman possession of the Iberian peninsula is generally rather poor. According to Brito a destructive earthquake was followed by a tsunami. Mendonca and Navarro Neumann report of a tsunami. Effects observed along the coasts of Portugal and Galicia. The sea first flooded coastal villages and then retired leaving many coasts dry. (reference #4139)
60 B.C. 36 N, 10 W, Portugal and Galicia. (reference #2764)
60 B.C. 36 N, 10 W. Tsunami. SW Cabo San Vicente. (reference #1193)
60 B.C. 36 N, 10.7 W. Probable tsunami (reliability 3). The M=8.5 earthquake dated 60 BC is the oldest event often considered in Portuguese earthquake catalogs (LNEC, 1986; Sousa et al., 1992; Martins and Victor, 2001). Sousa (1678) gives one of the rare descriptions of the tsunami: “[. . . ] About these years, or slightly before, took place that remarkable earthquake on the coasts of Portugal and Galicia, with which many places were ruined [. . . ]. And the sea leaving in some places its ordinary limits occupied a part of the land, uncovering it in other places where it was never seen before [. . . ] At Cape St. Vincent a bull gave birth to a mare [. . . ]. Very sad augury to the coasts of Lusitania, this monster, in the opinion of the professors [. . . ]”. Mendonca (1758) reports this event but only quoting Sousa (1678). (reference #4649)
60 B.C. Probable tsunami. Effects observed along the coasts of Portugal and Galicia. (reference #11164, v. 2)
Moreira de Mendoza (1758) lists an earthquake for this year (60 B.C.): "In those years a horrible earthquake happened at the sea shore of Portugal and Galicia which caused the ruin of many buildings and complete villages. The sea went forward from its ordinary limits and flooded many lands and uncovered others when the water moved away. People went to live in the fields and mountains." (reference #12774)
The first of the accounts in which Brito explicitly describes an earthquake associated with sea floods in Portugal refers to events that he dates to around 63 BC [...] Brito’s account, based on the purported testimony of Pedro Aladio, continues with the birth of a monstrous hybrid creature off Cape St. Vincent, a tall story that vaguely recalls the Roman narrative of prodigies or portents. Neither is there any ancient source from which Brito could have borrowed this account, nor is it possible to draw parallels between this alleged earthquake and tsunami on the Atlantic coasts of Portugal and Galicia in around 63 BC and the information that Sallust provides on an earthquake in Cordova in the 70 s BC (Knapp 1983, p. 17). (reference #13258)
A major earthquake was felt in Lusitania. The sea overflowed its normal boundaries, flooding much of the land. (refrence #11455)
More
Every tsunami in 60 BC99 to 1 BCTsunamis of PortugalThe earthquakeAlerts 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 4263.