Significant earthquakes of 1673

August 12, 1673 Earthquake: N. Moluccas Islands, Indonesia

August 12, 1673 · Deaths: many

An earthquake struck N. Moluccas Islands, Indonesia on August 12, 1673. It caused a tsunami.

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
August 12, 1673
Place
N. Moluccas Islands, Indonesia
Intensity
IX, violent shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Epicenter
1.375° N, 127.520° E
Country
Indonesia
Region
Central and South Pacific

The toll

Deaths
Many (about 101 to 1,000) with its tsunami and other effects
Damage
Limited (under about $1 million)
Houses destroyed
Few (about 1 to 50) with its tsunami and other effects

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.

Reference #414:

1673, August 12, between 22:00 and 23:30 [local time] such a strong earthquake occurred on Ternate Island that no one could remember the like. The southern slope of Ternate Volcano split from top to bottom. Avalanches and rock falls occurred. The houses of the King of Ternate, standing at the foot of the volcano, made of stone and covered with tiles, collapsed completely. The sea "swelled" up so much that all the ships in the roadstead almost went to the bottom. This destructive phenomenon continued for at least another two months. May 20, 1673 is an additional date given for this tsunami.

Reference #521:

1673, May 20, earthquake. Gilolo and Ternate in the Moluccas. Acompanied by an eruption of a volcano at Gammacamore in Gilolo.

Reference #11528:

A violent earthquake that caused Mount Gamalama to split open on the south side from bottom to top, but no eruption was reported. Rocks sank away and houses collapsed.

Sources NCEI cites

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

  1. #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.
  2. #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.]
  3. #11528 Harris, Ron, Jonathan Major (2016). Waves of destruction in the East Indies: the Wichmann catalogue of earthquakes and tsunami in the Indonesian region from 1538 to 1877. In Geohazards in Indonesia: Earth Science for Disaster Risk Reduction, P. R. Cummins and I. Meilano (eds.), Geological Society London, Special Publications, vol. 441. DOI:10.1144/SP441.2

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1673The 1600sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history

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 5982.