During the Early-Miocine, the Sunda Plate subducted below the Philippine Mobile Belt,[10] which would later form the Negros Trench.
The Negros trench was formed from subduction of the Eurasian Plate underneath the Philippine Sea plate which initiated during the Early Miocene (23.03-20.44 million years ago), The trench was previously the site of a collision zone with the Palawan plate, which formed the Philippine Trench 8–9 million years ago, This trench is located west of the Visayan Islands.
Although there are vast areas of subduction zones, some authors have considered this region to have low seismic activity.
There has been a decent amount of earthquakes with a magnitude ≥6.4 in the region, with the most recent occurring in 2011.
Areas adjacent to the subduction zones have experienced large seismic activity.