Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: 1630
Place: Banda Sea, Indonesia
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Epicenter: 4.600° S, 129.900° E
Country: Indonesia
Region: Central and South Pacific

The toll

The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this earthquake.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

1630 or 1631. A date for the tsunami of August 1, 1629

(reference #414)

1630 or 1631. Banda-Nera in the Moluccas. The sea overflowed its shores. The earth opened in different places. (reference #521)

1630 or 1631. Indonesia, Bandanaira (Banda Neira 04 deg 32 min S., 129 deg 54 min E.) in the Moluccas (Maluku, O1 deg S., 128 deg E.). Local shock, sea overflowed the shore. (reference #40)

1630 or 1631. Banda Island, Banda Neira tsunami observed. Quite probably same as Aug 29, 1629. (reference #79)

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#414 Soloviev, S.L., and Ch.N. Go (1974). A catalogue of tsunamis on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean [dates include 173-1968. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Nauka Publishing House, Moscow, 439 p. [Canadian Translation of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences no. 5077, 1984, translation available from Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A OS2, 447 p.]
#79 Iida, Kumizi, Doak C. Cox, and George Pararas-Carayannis (1967). Preliminary Catalog of Tsunamis Occurring in the Pacific Ocean, HIG-67-10, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, 275 p. Bibliography to the Preliminary Catalog of Tsunamis Occurring in the Pacific Ocean, December 1967, 27 p.
#40 Berninghausen, William H. (1969). Tsunamis and seismic seiches of Southeast Asia. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 59, no. 1, p. 289-297.
#132 Heck, N.H. (1947). List of seismic sea waves. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 37, no. 4, p. 269-286.
#521 Mallet, Robert (1853). Catalogue of Recorded Earthquakes from 1606 B.C. to A.D. 1850, Part I, 1606 B.C. to 1755 A.D. Report of the 22nd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Hull, Sept., 1853, John Murray, London, p. 1-176.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1630 The 1600s Recent earthquakes near here

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 9392.