The April 12, 2014 M 7.6 Solomon Islands earthquake occurred as the result of nearly pure transform faulting, likely on a NW-SE oriented left-lateral fault, on or near the plate boundary between the Australia and Pacific plates. At the location of the earthquake, the Australia Plate converges with and slips past the Pacific plate at the rate of 95 mm/yr.
The April 12 earthquake occurred along a portion of this plate boundary that transitions from thrust to transform tectonics between the New Britain Trench to the northwest and the New Hebrides Trench farther east. The earthquake occurred about 100 km SSE of Kirakira, Solomon Islands. The region of the April 12 earthquake is very seismically active, with 27 of M6+ occurring within 100 km and 62 events of M7+ within 500 km since 1900. The majority of these earthquakes are grouped to the northwest around the Solomon Islands and to the east near Vanuatu and the Santa Cruz Islands.
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