Summary

Papua New Guinea, being located along the Indo-Australian and the Pacific plate boundary is subject to frequent earthquake shaking and active volcanism. Subduction of the Indo-Australian plate beneath the Pacific plate within the PNG region is responsible for the local tectonic settings in PNG. The resultant local plates are the North and the South Bismarck plates, and the Solomon plate. The most active region is the arc-shaped boundary of the subducting Solomon plate and the overriding Bismarck plate. Earthquake epicentres as from 1964 clearly delineate these local plate boundaries and faults. Most of the active volcanism occurs along this arc-shaped convergent plate boundary. Four of the five most high-risk volcanoes are located along this arc. The fifth high-risk volcano is located on the southeastern tip of mainland PNG. Epicentral locations of earthquakes were also used to define seismic hazard zones. Zone one is the most active region and zone four is the less active region. Likewise most active volcanic activity occur in seismic zones one and two.