Kilinailai Trench is an

oceanic trench Oceanic trenches are prominent long, narrow topographic depressions of the ocean floor. They are typically wide and below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers in length. There are about of oceanic tren ...

delineating the oceanic boundary between the

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Iza ...

and

North Bismarck Plate The North Bismarck Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the Bismarck Sea off the northeast coast of New Guinea. Tectonics To the north it collides with the Pacific Plate and the Caroline Plate, part of the western part subducts under the Wo ...

s, in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The

Manus Trench Manus Trench is an oceanic trench in the Bismarck Sea north of Papua New Guinea delineating the plate tectonic boundary between the Caroline and North Bismarck plates. There very moderate seismic activity along both these trenches, and their stat ...

, which looks as if it is a western continuation of the Kilinailai Trench, marks the boundary between the

Caroline Plate The Caroline Plate is a minor tectonic plate that straddles the Equator in the eastern hemisphere located north of New Guinea. It forms a subduction zone along the border with the Bird's Head Plate and the Woodlark Plate to the south. A transform ...

and North Bismarck Plates. It is, however, disputed whether the Caroline Plate moves independently from the Pacific Plate. If not, the Manus and Kilinailau trenches form the Pacific-North Bismarck boundary together.

References

; Notes ; Sources * Tectonic plates Geology of the Pacific Ocean {{tectonics-stub