The resulting tsunami reached heights of up to 100 metres (330 ft) on Ambon Island killing over 2,000 individuals.

The tectonics of the North Maluku Islands is dominated by complex collision, subduction, and strike-slip elements.

Intermediate to deep focus earthquakes with a focal depth of 60 km or greater are immediately ruled out as the source because no known historical events of the same kind have generated a large tsunami.

[1] The Seram Trough is a zone of complex convergence between the Pacific, Australian, Sunda, and numerous micro tectonic plates.

While it has generated large tsunamigenic earthquakes in the past such as that in 1899 and 1629, the fault is situated too far from Ambon to have caused huge tsunami run-ups.

On the Hitu peninsula, the waves were thought to be as high as 100 metres (330 ft), nearly topping the coastal hills.