M5.5 earthquake Banda Sea
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck in the Banda Sea on Fri, Mar 25, 1983, 4:43 PM GMT+9 (07:43 UTC), 133 km (83 mi) below the surface.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.5 (mb, body-wave), moderate
- Magnitude from
- USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- Local time
- UTC
- 1983-03-25 07:43:58 UTC
- Depth
- 132.8 km (82.5 mi), intermediate-depth
- Epicenter
- 6.520° S, 129.960° E
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | mb, body-wave | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed · 37 stations |
| 5.51 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 5.5 | Mwc, centroid moment | Global CMT project | Preliminary |
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
CENTROID, MOMENT TENSOR SOLUTION HARVARD EVENT-FILE NAME B032583A DATA USED: GDSN L.P. BODY WAVES: 14S, 29C, T=45 CENTROID LOCATION: ORIGIN TIME 7:44: 4.7 0.5 LAT 6.51S 0.04;LON 130.27E 0.07 DEP 163.7 2.3;HALF-DURATION 2.0 MOMENT TENSOR; SCALE 10**24 D-CM MRR=-0.67 0.11; MTT=-0.35 0.13 MFF=1.02 0.14; MRT=0.80 0.10 MRF=1.90 0.12; MTF=-0.17 0.14 PRINCIPAL AXES: 1.(T) VAL=2.28;PLG=34;AZM=278 2.(N) -0.07; 15; 18 3.(P) -2.21; 52; 128 BEST DOUBLE COUPLE:M0=2.3*10**24 NP1:STRIKE=322;DIP=18;SLIP=-148 NP2:Strike=201;Dip=81;Slip=-75
From the USGS event page for usp0001ty6. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.
Did you feel it?
No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 2.5 and up: 2 in the 60 days after this one and 2 in the 30 days before it.
After
- 4.8Banda Sea · 15897 days ago · 133 km deep · 44 km away
- 5.2Kepulauan Babar, Indonesia · 15889 days ago · 139 km deep · 89 km away
Before
Earthquakes todayLive radar here
Sources
From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp0001ty6 (also filed as gcmtb032583a, gcmt19830325074401, iscgem581490). Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 7:54 PM UTC.