South Bismarck Plate

It is sandwiched between the North Bismarck Plate and the South Bismarck Plate.

The South Bismarck Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the southern Bismarck Sea.

The northern subduction zone is located where the Solomon Plate is diving below the South Bismarck Plate to the northwest and the Pacific Plate to the northeast.

The mainshock was a magnitude 8.0 M strike-slip event that occurred on November 16 at 04:54 UTC, and ruptured a section of the transform boundary between the north and south Bismarck plates.

GPS data shows the South Bismarck plate, though north of the Australian plate boundary, is being pushed by Australia in a northerly direction while the North Bismarck Plate is being dragged by the Pacific plate easterly.