September 12, 1979 Earthquake: Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia

Name: September 12, 1979 Earthquake: Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia
Start: 1979-09-12
Location: Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia

September 12, 1979 · M7.9 · 115 deaths · 1,000 houses destroyed

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia on September 12, 1979 at 05:17:51 UTC, 5 km below the surface. It killed 115 people, counting the tsunami it caused.

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: September 12, 1979
Time: 05:17:51 UTC
Place: Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Indonesia
Magnitude: 7.9 (Ms)
Magnitude scales: Ms 7.9 · mb 6.3
Focal depth: 5 km (3 mi)
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Epicenter: 1.679° S, 136.040° 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: 15; 115 with its tsunami and other effects
Injuries: Many (about 101 to 1,000)
Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
Houses destroyed: 1,000

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 1979 Yapen earthquake occurred on September 12 at 05:17:51 UTC. It had an epicenter near the coast of Yapen Island in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Measuring 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale and having a depth of 20 km (12 mi), it caused severe damage on the island. At least 115 were killed due to shaking and a moderate tsunami.

Text from Wikipedia, “1979 Yapen 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
7.9	Ms, surface-wave	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
7.52	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
7.5	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

On September 12, 1979, a strong earthquake was recorded in West Irian. Fifteen people died and many were injured. Considerable loss was reported on Japen Island. A tsunami of local significance was observed on Japen and Biak

islands. (reference #417)

15 killed, many injured and extensive damage on Yapen. Local tsunami reported on the islands of Biak and Yapen. (reference #1053)

2 killed and 1000 houses destroyed. (reference #1250)

2 killed, 5 injured in Japen and Jobi villages. Many houses, buildings, school buildings and clinics collapsed or seriously damaged. (reference #1188)

Sources NCEI cites

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

#417 Soloviev, S L., Ch. N. Go, and Kh. S. Kim (1992). Catalog of tsunamis in the Pacific, 1969-1982. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, 208 p. Translated from Russian by Amerind Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India, 1988 [Originally published in Russian in 1986].
#1188 Soetardjo, M. Untung, and E.P. Arnold (1985). Southeast Asia Association of Seismology, Series on Seismology, vol. V - Indonesia, U.S. Geological Survey.
#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
#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.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1979 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1979 Recent earthquakes near here This 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 4842. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp00012wp, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.