The epicenters were located close to the Fijian island Lakeba, and around 270 km from the small town of Levuka on Ovalau.

[3] A Mww  7.9 event struck the islands again on September 6 at a depth of 670 km; this earthquake was a mainshock of its own.

The north westward motion continued to occur creating lots of stress on the plate boundary.

The Suva earthquake of 1953 measured Ms  6.8, and was located off the southeastern coast of Viti Levu.

The earthquake, combined with the tsunami, took the lives of eight people and severely damaged a lot of architecture.

[6] Deep earthquakes are commonly defined as events occurring at a depth of 300 km or greater.

As these plates bend or flex, faults break out to accommodate the deformation and along with it, occasionally producing earthquakes.

It was an unusual event as this portion of the downgoing slab is rather aseismic; not capable of producing earthquakes.