The Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency recorded a Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake at a depth of about 24 km, to the south of the town of Nabire in Central Papua Province, Indonesia slightly before 3.20 am on Friday 19 September 2025, Eastern Indonesian Time (slightly before 6.20 pm on Thursday 18 September, GMT). The event was felt across much of western Central Papua Province and parts of eastern West Papua Province, and is reported to have caused the collapse of the main bridge in Nabire, as well as two houses. Other buildings, including the airport, have recorded minor damage, although no casualties have been reported.
The tectonic situation underlying the island of Papua is complex, with the island being made up of a number of small tectonic plates being squeezed between the larger Pacific/Caroline and Australian plates. Beneath Central Papua Province the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Australian Plate along the New Guinea Trench, however, this is not a simple tectonic boundary with one plate disappearing beneath another, as a sliver of an older, now almost completely subducted plate caught between the two and being displaced to the west along the Sorong-Yapen Fault. This creates a complex situation in which the various plates stick together until pressure builds up sufficiently to overcome the friction and causes sudden movements we experience as Earthquakes.
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