M6.3 earthquake Banda Sea
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck in the Banda Sea on Tue, Feb 21, 1978, 4:14 PM GMT+9 (07:14 UTC), 510 km (317 mi) below the surface.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 6.3 (mb, body-wave), strong
- Magnitude from
- USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- Local time
- UTC
- 1978-02-21 07:14:54 UTC
- Depth
- 510.0 km (316.9 mi), deep
- Epicenter
- 4.844° S, 125.412° E
- Region
- Indonesia
- Tsunami flag
- No
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
Magnitude estimates
Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.
| Mag. | Scale | Computed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.3 | mb, body-wave | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed |
| 6.8 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
Did you feel it?
No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.
How well it is located
Reviewed by a seismologist.
- Depth from
- CONSTRAINED_BY_DEPTH_PHASES
- Stations used
- 100
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 3.3 and up: 2 in the 60 days after this one and 1 in the 30 days before it.
After
- 5.6Banda Sea · 17755 days ago · 531 km deep · 26 km away
- 4.6Banda Sea · 17740 days ago · 565 km deep · 65 km away
Before
Earthquakes todayIndonesia earthquakesLive radar here
Sources
From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp0000t2v (also filed as iscgem686805). Read Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 9:56 AM UTC.