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An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 rocked Banda Sea on Tuesday, a statement by the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said.
As per the statement, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 148km. In a post on X, the NCS said, "EQ of M: 6.5, On: 28/10/2025 20:10:18 IST, Lat: 6.73 S, Long: 130.01 E, Depth: 148 Km, Location: Banda Sea." https://x.com/NCS_Earthquake/status/1983186788731760715 The Banda Sea is situated in a region of complex convergence involving the Australian and Sunda plates. This complex tectonic interaction has broken the crust into a number of minor plates and microplates including the Banda Sea, Timor, Molucca Sea and Bird's Head plates. Resembling an arch, this convergent boundary is one of the most complex in the world. Oceanic lithosphere subducts to a depth greater than 600 km beneath the Banda Sea. As a consequence, the Banda Sea is a seismically active region. Many large earthquakes in the Banda Sea occur at a hypocentral depth of up to 600 km, including an Mw 7.6 which struck at 397 km (247 mi) depth.[3] These intermediate (70-300 km (43-186 mi)) and deep-focus (>300-700 km (190-430 mi)) earthquakes are the result of dip-slip faulting within the oceanic lithosphere, which usually do not result in significant impact. The Mw 8.5-8.6 1938 Banda Sea earthquake was an intermediate-focus thrust earthquake. The Australia-Pacific plate boundary is over 4000 km long on the northern margin, from the Sunda (Java) trench in the west to the Solomon Islands in the east. The eastern section is over 2300 km long, extending west from northeast of the Australian continent and the Coral Sea until it intersects the east coast of Papua New Guinea. The boundary is dominated by the general northward subduction of the Australia plate. Further east at the New Britain trench, the relative motions of several microplates surrounding the Australia-Pacific boundary, including north-south oriented seafloor spreading in the Woodlark Basin south of the Solomon Islands, maintain the general northward subduction of Australia-affiliated lithosphere beneath Pacific-affiliated lithosphere. Most of the large and great earthquakes east of New Guinea are related to this subduction; such earthquakes are particularly concentrated at the cusp of the trench south of New Ireland. 33 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded since 1900, including three shallow thrust fault M8.1 events in 1906, 1919, and 2007. (ANI)
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