Solomon Sea Plate

Solomon Sea Plate
Type	Minor
Approx. Area	250,000 km2[1]
Movement1	north
Speed1	86mm/year
Features	Pacific Ocean
1Relative to the African Plate

The Solomon Sea Plate is a minor tectonic plate to the northwest of the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific Ocean, it roughly corresponds with the Solomon Sea west of Papua New Guinea.

Tectonics

The tectonic regime in this part of the world is extremely complex and involves a number of minor as well as major plates. The Solomon Sea Plate is an oceanic crustal plate remnant which is disappearing into two subduction zones, one to its north, the other on its southwest margin. Its southeast margin runs along the Woodlark Rise, an undefined compressive zone which may be a transform fault marking the boundary with the adjoining Woodlark Plate.

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 northwest part of the subduction zone is called the New Britain Subduction Zone. New Britain in Papua New Guinea is the volcanic island formed from this collision and resulting volcanism. The southwestern subduction zone is where the Solomon Pate is diving below the Indo-Australian Plate.

See also

• List of earthquakes in Papua New Guinea

References

• Preliminary Analysis of the April 2007 Solomon Islands Tsunami, Southwest Pacific Ocean, USGS
• Report on interplate propagation of subduction stress rupture, Solomon earthquake of 2007

Tectonic plates
Major	African Indo-Australian Plate Antarctic Eurasian North American Pacific South American
Minor	Arabian Caribbean Cocos Juan de Fuca Nazca Philippine Scotia
Other	Adriatic Aegean Sea Amurian Anatolian Australian Balmoral Reef Banda Sea Bird's Head Burma Capricorn Caroline Conway Reef Easter Explorer Falklands Futuna Galapagos Gonâve Gorda Greenland Halmahera Iberian Indian Iranian Juan Fernández Kerguelen Kermadec Kula Madagascar Manus Maoke Mariana Molucca Sea New Hebrides Niuafo’ou North Andes North Bismarck North Galapagos Nubian Okhotsk Okinawa Panama Pelso Philippine Mobile Belt Rivera Sangihe Seychelles Shetland Solomon Sea Somali South Bismarck South Sandwich Sunda Timor Tisza Tonga Woodlark Yangtze
Historical	Baltic Bellingshausen Charcot Cimmeria Farallon Insular Intermontane Izanagi Lhasa Malvinas Moa Phoenix
List of tectonic plates