I have here placed the moment tensors for the large magnitude earthquakes along the New Britain trench for the time period from 2000 through March 2015. Note that the Mw 8.0 has a strike-slip moment tensor. There is a transform plate boundary in that region. It is interesting that the Mw 7.8 subduction zone earthquake followed hours afterwards. I would interpret this to have been a triggered earthquake (not an aftershock, since it is on a different fault). Today’s Mw 7.5 earthquake is down-dip from the 2000 Mw 7.8 earthquake.
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