As a smaller Solomon Sea plate is totally underwater, global positioning data can not resolve this issue.

The area of the plate is associated with earthquake and volcanic activity as part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The Trobriand plate underlies south-eastern parts of Papua New Guinea east of the Owen Stanley Range as it is separated in the range from the Australian plate by the Owen Stanley Fault Zone[1][2] This extends along the southern border of the Goodenough Basin and through the southern part of Normanby Island in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands.

[3] Woodlark Island is on the area of the Trobriand plate as the Nubara Transform Fault is to its south-east.

Within the Trobriand plate is the unigue to today's earth, the youngest (7–5 million year old) metamorphic core complexes formed of sedimentary rocks that have been subject to high and ultra–high–pressure, as well as gneissic domes that are being rapid emplaced at between 1–2 cm/year (0.39–0.79 in/year) vertically.

[21] Interestingly subduction at the Trobriand Trough was originally assumed in this historic model,[21] but at a rate that proved to be quite incompatible with actual data.