Reviewed by USGSIndonesia123y ago
M7.8 earthquake 160 km W of Gorontalo, Indonesia
Sunday, January 22, 1905, 02:43:58 UTC · 0.610°N, 121.622°E
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck 160 km W of Gorontalo, Indonesia on Sunday, January 22, 1905, 02:43:58 UTC, at a depth of 90.0 km (intermediate). No earthquake of this size or larger appears within 300 km in the USGS catalog since 1900.
- Magnitude
- 7.8
- Major · mB
- Depth
- 90 km
- Intermediate
- Felt reports
- 0
- Did You Feel It?
- Est. shaking
- —
- No ShakeMap
- PAGER alert
- None
- Not issued
- Tsunami
- No flag
- USGS feed
Outlined circle: this earthquake
In context
How big was it, and why here?
Energy released
7.6 megatons of TNT
That is about 502 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 15,849 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.
Tectonic setting
188 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Molucca Sea and Sunda plates. Earthquakes this far from a boundary happen on faults inside a plate, often less frequently but sometimes strongly.
Depth: intermediate
90 km
Intermediate-depth earthquakes usually break inside a plate that is sinking into the mantle. Shaking spreads over a wide area but is gentler at the epicenter than a shallow quake of the same size.
Did You Feel It?
Where it was felt
No “Did You Feel It?” reports have been published for this event yet. If you felt it, you can add your report on the USGS website.
I felt it — report to USGS ↗USGS PAGER estimate
Who was exposed to shaking
USGS publishes PAGER impact estimates for significant earthquakes, usually within an hour. No PAGER estimate is available for this event.
After the main event
Aftershocks within 200 km
USGS has not published any M2.5+ earthquake within 200 km in the 30 days after this event.
Regional history
Past M5+ earthquakes within 300 km
USGS lists no earlier M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km.
History · NOAA
Deadliest earthquakes in this area
NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 3 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700. The most severe:
- 1905M8.4
Minahassa Peninsula
22 Jan 1905 · 159 km away
- 1860
Sulawesi: Minahassa
Aug 1860 · 103 km away
tsunami
- 1871
Gorontalo
25 Aug 1871 · 154 km away
tsunami
NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.