The epicentre was close to the Santa Cruz Islands within Temotu Province at the boundaries of the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, causing local evacuations, a tsunami of 11 m (36 ft) and killing at least ten people.

On 6 February 2013, at 12:12 local time (01:12 UTC) an earthquake of Mw8.0 on the moment magnitude scale struck Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific.

[8] "This event had a shallow dipping thrust faulting mechanism…”[4] being an interplate earthquake[1] and “…produced a tsunami of ~ 1.5 height" on the Santa Cruz Islands.

The boundary between the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates has complicated faulting patterns around the arcs of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and is used to high frequency, low to moderate intensity, seismic activity.

[4] Many of the "larger events recorded have involved intraplate and interplate earthquakes with magnitudes up to about 8.0, several of which were located near the abrupt bends in the arcs.

The closest land to the epicentre was Nendö Island, Temotu Province, and its principal town Lata, reputedly experienced the largest movement.

[15] In Lata, the tsunami damaged the airport and flooded low-lying areas,[16] killing nine people, including five elderly and one child.

That means that sudden major loss of biodiversity, like that caused by both the earthquake and tsunami, can lead to "hunger, poverty, disease, and conflict and is a threat to internal security…”.