Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency said there was no danger of a tsunami.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured magnitude 6.3 and was centered 139 kilometers (86 miles) southeast of Ambon, the provincial capital of Maluku, at a depth of 34 kilometers (21 miles).
Edi Hatu, a hotel employee in Ambon, said panicked guests ran out of their rooms, but there was no damage.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
