February 17, 1674 Tsunami: Banda Sea, Indonesia

Ref #414:

1674, Feb 17, between 19:30 and 20:00 [local time]. There was a very strong earthquake, which affected all Ambon Island and adjacent islands and left human victims...

Immediately after the earthquake, a tsunami occurred on the entire coast of Ambon Island. The northwestern shore of Hitu peninsula suffered most of all, especially the region of Ceyt, between Lima (Negrilima) and Hila. Here the water rose 80-100 m that is, to the top of the coastal hills. The trees, including those in the clove plantations, which covered the calcareous coastal slopes at Mamala, Ela, Sinalo, Kaitetto, Ceyt, Loboleu, almost as far as Lima, were uprooted. Only the higher-lying plantations at Nausihola, Wakal and Hitulama escaped destruction.

Everything was so "jumbled" onshore that it was unrecognizable. In the region of Loboleu, a coastal strip with the width of a musket shot subsided. The shore became very precipitous between Cety and Hila and at Hila itself, part of the coast also collapsed into the water, carrying with it the settlements of Nukali, Ehalaa, and Wawani. In all, 2243 people died on Ambon island as a result of the tsunami.

According to eyewitness accounts, the water rose up like a mountain. First it inundated Loboleu, and then it split into three streams. One of them spread along the coast to the west to Lima and Urien, another to the east to Hila, and the third went out to sea, in the direction to Cape Ryst on Ceram Island, carrying with it trees, houses, domestic livestock and people. The movements of the water were accompanied by a very loud nose. The moving water was black, very dirty and evil smelling; its surface phosphoresced.

According to the eyewitnesses, the surface of the sea in the strait between Ceram and Ambon Islands, was calm, and it was agitated and made a deafening noise only off shore, to the distance of a musket shot. People in a boat not far from shore did not notice anything unusual in the state of the sea; the oscillations in its surface were just as weak and small as usual. On the coast, all the proas and other boats were smashed or carried away by the water. Many fish were tossed up on land.

Ref #40 and #132:

1674, Feb. 17. Dutch East Indies, Amboina (southwest of Ceram Island, which lies southwest of New Guinea). Moderate sea wave except at Hitu, where it was high and caused loss of life. Three waves. Waves smaller at other islands.

Ref #40:

1674, Feb 17. Indonesia, Amboina, moderate waves except at Hitu-lama , where high waves caused loss of life. Three waves. Smaller waves noted at other islands, (Heck 1947).

Ref #79:

1674, Feb 17. Tsunami observed at Amboina, Hitu, other nearby islands... Sieberg (who gives date as Feb. 12) puts loss of life at 2243 and mentions only Amboina.

Ref #12751:

Lovholt et al. (2012) and Harris and Major (2017) speculated that it was triggered by an earthquake from south of Ambon and a landslide triggered by an earthquake from inside Ambon Bay, respectively. However, no attempt has been made to investigate this event further, particularly to answer why the extreme run-up was observed only on the northern coast of Ambon. Therefore, the primary source of the tsunami and earthquake remains open to question [...] More significantly, we have shown that the only way to explain the extreme run-up only on the northern shore of Ambon, and in particular the very narrow lateral extent along the coast over which it occurred, is by attributing the tsunami generation to a submarine landslide.