At 1:18 a.m. Java time, June 3, 1994, a large earthquake occurred off the southeastern coast of Java near the east end of the Java Trench in the Indian Ocean. The earthquake, which had a surface-wave magnitude of 7.2 and a moment magnitude of 7.8, generated a devastating tsunami that took the lives of more than 200 East Java coastal residents.

An international tsunami survey team, composed of tsunami scientists and engineers from Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Thailand, and the United States, visited the impacted areas of Bali and Java from June 20 to June 25, 1994. The survey team observed the most severe tsunami damage along the southern coast of East Java. Significant earthquake-induced ground shaking was not experienced by the coastal residents interviewed in Bali and Java, suggesting that this tsunami may have generated by a tsunami earthquake. Runup measured along the southeastern East Java coast ranged from 1-14 m (3-46 ft.), while runup measured along the southwestern coast of Bali ranged from 1-5 m (3-16 ft.).

This account has been adapted from Synolakis et al.