March 29, 1907 Earthquake: Karakelong Island, Talaud Islands, Indonesia
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck Karakelong Island, Talaud Islands, Indonesia on March 29, 1907 at 20:46:30 UTC, 500 km below the surface. 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
- March 29, 1907
- Time
- 20:46:30 UTC
- Place
- Karakelong Island, Talaud Islands, Indonesia
- Magnitude
- 7.3 (Ms)
- Focal depth
- 500 km (311 mi)
- Tsunami
- Yes: the tsunami it caused
- Epicenter
- 3.000° N, 122.000° E
- Country
- Indonesia
- Region
- Central and South Pacific
- USGS record
- The USGS’s page for this earthquake
The toll
The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this earthquake.
References for the magnitude and location
The USGS’s notes on how this earthquake’s official magnitude and location were set.
Official magnitude added 04-Mar-2025
Reference:
Abe, K. (1981),
Magnitudes of large shallow earthquakes from 1904 to 1980,
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, v. 27, p. 72-92.
[also has a table of intermediate and deep earthquakes]
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
Reference #414:
1907, March 30, about 5:00 [local time]. Eeak underground shocks were felt at Lirung, Tomoon and Donggala.
Gutenberg, Richter (1954): 29.III; 20h46.5m; 3oN., 122o E.; 500 km; M=7.25.
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.]
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
More
Significant earthquakes of 1907The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1907Recent 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 6246. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event iscgemsup16957948, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.