September 29, 1899 Tsunami: Banda Sea, Indonesia
A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake and a landslide began at Banda Sea, Indonesia on September 29, 1899 at 17:03 UTC. The water rose as high as 12 meters. Its effects were recorded at 10 places. It killed 2,460 people.
Where the waves reached
The source (white) and every runup with a place, colored by the water height recorded there. A ring is a runup NCEI marks doubtful.
- Under 1 m
- 1 to 3 m
- 3 to 10 m
- 10 to 30 m
- 30 m and more
- Height not recorded
Travel times
How long the first wave took to reach each part of the ocean, one line for each hour up to 24, estimated from the source and the depth of the sea.
The travel times are computed in your browser, which needs JavaScript.
- 1 to 4 hours
- 5 to 6 hours
- 7 to 14 hours
- 15 hours and more
Computed in your browser the way NOAA’s own travel time maps are: the wave travels at the square root of gravity times the depth, over NOAA’s ETOPO1 depths averaged to a 10 arc-minute grid. Checked against NOAA NCEI’s maps for 21 tsunamis over the first 24 hours, these lines fall within 10 minutes of NCEI’s at half the points compared and within 52 minutes at 9 in 10. They give when the first wave could arrive, not how high it is; bays, harbors and island chains finer than the grid can see it later. Not for use in a warning: see tsunami.gov.
The tsunami
- Date
- September 29, 1899, 17:03 UTC
- Source
- Banda Sea, Indonesia
- Cause
- Earthquake and landslide
- Earthquake
- Magnitude 7.8
- Maximum water height
- 12 m (39.4 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 10
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 3
- Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
- 3.6
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 3.000° S, 128.500° E
The toll
- Deaths
- 2,460
- Injuries
- 300
- 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.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
1899, September 30, 1:42 [local time]. There was a destructive earthquake and tsunami with source off the southern coast of Ceram Island. The earthquake was felt with greatest force at the settlements of Hatusua, Paulohi, Makariki, Tehoro and Wolu and was connected with a shift along the tectonic fault which separates the peninsula in the southwestern part of Ceram Island from the main part of the island.
On many areas of the coast of Ceram Island, large massifs of loose materials, mainly Quarternary sandy-clay and rubbly-pebbly alluvial deposits, tumbled into the water. These slumps, together with assumed tectonic dislocations on the bottom of large bays, generated tsunami waves, which reached a height of 9 m in some places.
2460 deaths and 300 injuries from the earthquake and tsunami.
(above from reference #414)
3864 deaths (reference #4659)
2460 deaths (reference #12917)
Every runup
Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.
| Where | Country | Km from source | Water height, m | Inland, m | Measured by | First wave, UTC | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taniwil | Indonesia | 19 | 4.6 | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||
| Hatusua, Piru Bay | Indonesia | 39 | 4 | Eyewitness observation of water height | 95 | ||
| Indonesia: Kawa, Seram Island | Indonesia | 41 | 1.7 | Eyewitness observation of water height | 9 | ||
| Paulohi | Indonesia | 43 | 9 | 170 | Eyewitness observation of water height | 1,570 | |
| Uwalohi | Indonesia | 50 | Eyewitness observation of water height | 52 | |||
| Makariki | Indonesia | 57 | 6.4 | Eyewitness observation of water height | 68 | ||
| Amahai | Indonesia | 59 | 8.3 | Eyewitness observation of water height | 348 | ||
| Tumaleu | Indonesia | 63 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Tehoru | Indonesia | 119 | 12 | Eyewitness observation of water height | 600 | ||
| Laimu | Indonesia | 615 | 9 | 270 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1899The 1800sTsunamis of IndonesiaThe earthquakeThis day in weather historyAlerts in force
Sources
Tsunami events and runups from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI tsunami event 1266.