On the morning of

January 5 Events Pre-1600 * 1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is defeated and killed in a conflict with René II, Duke of Lorraine; Burgundy subsequently becomes part of France. 1601–1900 * 1675 – Battle of Colmar: The French ...

, 1699, a violent

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

rocked the then

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

city of Batavia on the island of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, now known as the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n capital city of

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

. Dutch accounts of the event described the earthquake as being "so heavy and strong" and beyond comparable to other known earthquakes. This event was so large that it was felt throughout west Java, and southern Sumatra.

Tectonic setting

The

n islands of

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

and Lesser Sunda chain lie along a destructive plate boundary where the

Australian plate The Australian plate is or was a major tectonic plate in the eastern and, largely, southern hemispheres. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, Australia remained connected to India and Antarctica until approximately when Indi ...

meets the

Sunda plate The Sunda plate is a minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere on which the majority of Southeast Asia is located. The Sunda plate was formerly considered a part of the Eurasian plate, but the GPS measurements hav ...

. The plates converge, with the Australian plate being much denser as it is

oceanic lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time sc ...

subducting Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second pla ...

beneath the less dense Sunda plate.

Subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second p ...

is responsible for the large

megathrust earthquakes Megathrust earthquakes occur at convergent plate boundaries, where one tectonic plate is forced underneath another. The earthquakes are caused by slip along the thrust fault that forms the contact between the two plates. These interplate earthq ...

along the west coast of Sumatra and south coast of Java. It also plays a significant role in the volcanic activity on the islands. However, intraplate earthquakes can also occur as the Australian plate deforms when it is subducting; faults within the downgoing slab may result in intermediate-depth events that are also considerably large.

Damage and casualties

At least 28 people in Batavia were fatally wounded and 49 stone-constructed structures collapsed as a result of the earthquake. Some 21 homes and 29 barns were also obliterated. Almost every home situated in the city suffered some extent of damage. The earthquake uprooted and toppled many trees, blocking waterways and choking river systems. At

Mount Salak Mount Salak (, ) is an eroded volcano in West Java, Indonesia. It has several satellite cones on its southeast flank and the northern foot, along with two additional craters at the summit. Mount Salak has been evaluated for geothermal power d ...

, a

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

on the island of Java, the violent tremors triggered

landslides Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslide ...

and debris masses, blocking rivers and causing floods. The combination of earth and vegetation produced a

debris flow Debris flows are geological phenomena in which water-laden masses of soil and fragmented Rock (geology), rock flow down mountainsides, funnel into stream channels, entrain objects in their paths, and form thick, muddy deposits on valley floors. ...

that passed through the Ci Liwung river and into Batavia, where it entered the

Java Sea The Java Sea (, ) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its northwest links it to the South Ch ...

. In the port settlement of Bantam, now

Banten Banten (, , Pegon alphabet, Pegon: بنتن) is the westernmost Provinces of Indonesia, province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang and its largest city is Tangerang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capi ...

, the earthquake destroyed a storage warehouse and caused additional damage. In Lampung, Sumatra, the earthquake threw every home off its foundations. More than 100 people were reported killed in Lampung.

Earthquake

The characteristics of the event is not well determined but most likely a large intermediate-depth earthquake. Other researchers suggest it was a megathrust event with a magnitude of 9.0 along the

Sunda megathrust The Sunda megathrust is a fault that extends approximately 5,500 km (3300 mi) from Myanmar (Burma) in the north, running along the southwestern side of Sumatra, to the south of Java and Bali before terminating near Australia. It is cap ...

. If it were an intraslab earthquake occurring within the downgoing

as it

subducts Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second pla ...

beneath the

along the

, the estimated moment magnitude () would be 7.4 to 8.0, with an

epicenter The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a ...

near Batavia, and a focal depth of 100 km. Modelling of the 1699 earthquake scenarios show that an intraslab earthquake of 8.0 provided results consistent with historical documentation of the earthquake. High Mercalli intensity values at IX corresponds to the pattern of damage described by Dutch officials in Java and Sumatra. As Banten Province is situated on pyroclastic deposits and

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

sediments, seismic waves were likely amplified, resulting in higher degrees of shaking. Simulations of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake only produced shaking assigned at VI to VII which did not match the damage descriptions. Such intensities would only cause moderate damage. Weaker levels of shaking would occur in the mountainous regions, which were insufficient to trigger a landslide. The earthquake was not accompanied by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

, further disproving the megathrust theory for an earthquake of such intensity.

Future hazard

In a simulation model, if an earthquake of similar size occurred in modern times, it would cause about 100,000 deaths.

References

{{Earthquakes in Indonesia Earthquakes in Java Earthquakes in Indonesia 1699 in the Dutch Empire 1699 in Asia 1690s earthquakes Batavia, Dutch East Indies Landslides in Indonesia

Tectonic setting

Damage and casualties

Earthquake

Future hazard

See also

References