November 18, 1929, an earthquake off the coast of southern Newfoundland in a region called the Grand Banks, caused a submarine landslide that triggered a tsunami that killed people on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland.
The earthquake, which had a Richter magnitude of 7.2, had an epicenter of 44.5°N, 56.3°W. It occurred at 17:02 Newfoundland time and was felt in New York City and Montreal.
The undersea landslide damaged several miles of transatlantic telegraph cables, resulting in much of the $400,000 in damage attributed to the disaster.
The tsunami generated by the earthquake and underwater landslide destroyed many communities along the coastline of the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland reached shorelines as far away as South Carolina and Portugal. It reached heights of twenty feet in some places. It is the only recorded tsunami to strike eastern Canada.
The combined events caused $400,000 in damage and killed twenty nine people, mostly on the Burin Peninsula. It is the highest death toll attributed to an earthquake in Canada.
Scientists fear that a repeat of such an event off the U.S. East Coast could generate a series of waves up to fifteen feet in height in the Chesapeake Bay and along the North Carolina Outer Banks.
