The 1674 Ambon Tsunami: Extreme Run-Up Caused by an Earthquake-Triggered Landslide

We present an analysis of the oldest detailed account of tsunami run-up in Indonesia, that of the 1674 Ambon tsunami (Rumphius in Waerachtigh Verhael van de Schuckelijcke Aerdbebinge, BATAVIA, Dutch East Indies, 1675). At 100 m this is the largest run-up height ever documented in Indonesia, and with over 2300 fatalities even in 1674, it ranks as one of Indonesia’s most deadly tsunami disasters. We consider the plausible sources of earthquakes near Ambon that could generate a large, destructive tsunami, including the Seram Megathrust, the South Seram Thrust, and faults local to Ambon. We conclude that the only explanation for the extreme run-up observed on the north coast of Amon is a tsunami generated by an earthquake-triggered coastal landslide. We use a two-layer tsunami model to show that a submarine landslide, with an approximate volume of 1 km³, offshore the area on Ambon’s northern coast, between Seith and Hila, where dramatic changes in coastal landscape were observed can explain the observed tsunami run-up along the coast. Thus, the 1674 Ambon tsunami adds weight to the evidence from recent tsunamis, including the 1992 Flores, 2018 Palu and Sunda Strait tsunamis, that landslides are an important source of tsunami hazard in Indonesia.