June 25, 1976 Earthquake: Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia on June 25, 1976 at 19:18:56 UTC, 33 km below the surface. It killed 6,000 people.
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
- June 25, 1976
- Time
- 19:18:56 UTC
- Place
- Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia
- Magnitude
- 7.1 (Ms)
- Magnitude scales
- Ms 7.1 · mb 6.1
- Focal depth
- 33 km (21 mi)
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 4.603° S, 140.091° E
- Country
- Indonesia
- Region
- Central and South Pacific
- USGS record
- The USGS’s page for this earthquake
Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.
The toll
- Deaths
- 6,000
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
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.
From Wikipedia
The 1976 Papua earthquake occurred on 26 June with a surface-wave magnitude of 7.1 in Yahukimo Regency near the border with Pegunungan Bintang Regency, Highland Papua (then Irian Jaya), Indonesia. Total deaths for the event amounted to 422, including 70 who died in subsequent landslides.
Text from Wikipedia, “1976 Papua earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.
Magnitude estimates
The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.
| Mag. | Scale | Computed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1 | Ms, surface-wave | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed |
| 7.14 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 7.1 | Mwc, centroid moment | Global CMT project | Preliminary |
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
1976, June 25. Press reported 422 dead and between 5,000 and 9,000 missing and feared dead from landslides. Six villages reported destroyed. Felt strongly in other parts of West Irian and eastern New Guinea. Mag. 7.1 MS (PAS), 7.2 MS (BRK).
(reference #1053)
1976, June 26. 420 deaths, 15,000 affected. (reference #1250)
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
- #1250 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) (2001). EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, link
- #1051 Munchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft (1998). World Map of Natural Hazards, Munich Federal Republic of Germany
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- January 19, 1981, Jayawijaya Mts, Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia
- October 29, 1976, Jayawijaya, Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia
- August 1, 1989, Kurima District, Baliem River, Indonesia
- October 7, 1900, NW. Irian Jaya, Indonesia
- September 20, 1935, N-Central, Papua New Guinea
- January 10, 1971, Djajapura,sentani, Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia
More
Significant earthquakes of 1976The 1900sEvery quake the USGS located in 1976Recent 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 4729. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp0000h1p, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.