Overview
Magnitude 7.6, and located beneath the Banda Sea at 5.47 S, 128.13 E, the earthquake of 27 January 2006 released more energy than most events in this catalogue yet left no recorded deaths, injuries, or damage. The Banda Sea overlies one of the most sharply curved subduction systems on Earth, where the descending slab reaches depths of several hundred kilometres; earthquakes within it are often deep enough that their shaking is attenuated before reaching the scattered island populations above. No focal depth was assigned in 2006, so the catalogue does not itself confirm that explanation, and the entry rests on magnitude alone.
On this page
Energy Released
252.5 atomic bombs
About This Earthquake
2006 Banda Sea, Indonesia: M7.6 at shallow depth. No fatalities reported. Indo-Australian Plate subduction, Indonesia; focal depth unspecified.
Similar Historical Earthquakes
Frequently Asked Questions
The largest earthquake ever recorded was the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile, at magnitude 9.5. It generated a tsunami that traveled across the Pacific Ocean and caused damage as far away as Hawaii and Japan. The earthquake killed approximately 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless.
The deadliest earthquake in recorded history was the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake in China, estimated at magnitude 8.0-8.3, which killed approximately 830,000 people. Many casualties resulted from the collapse of yaodong (cave dwellings) carved into loess cliffs. The 2010 Haiti earthquake (M7.0, ~316,000 deaths) was the deadliest in modern times.
Pre-instrumental earthquake magnitudes are estimated from written accounts of damage, felt reports, geological evidence such as fault scarps and liquefaction features, and tsunami records. These methods provide approximate magnitudes with typical uncertainties of 0.3-0.5 magnitude units.
QuakeFYI's historical database covers earthquakes from approximately 2150 BC to the present, with over 5,700 significant events. Written records from ancient China, Greece, and the Middle East provide some of the earliest accounts. Instrumental recording began around 1900 with the first standardized seismographs.
An earthquake swarm is a sequence of many earthquakes occurring in a localized area over weeks to months without a clear mainshock. Unlike aftershock sequences where one large event is followed by smaller ones, swarms have no single dominant event. They are often associated with volcanic activity or fluid migration in the crust.