Major tsunamigenic earthquakes occurred on 14 July and 26 July 1971 about 100 km apart in the north Solomon Sea. The second earthquake is not considered to be an aftershock of the first: aftershock patterns and fault‐plane solutions indicate that both were the result of movements along two separate parts of a major arcuate fault surface. The first earthquake caused movement along the part of the fault that extends south‐southeast, the second in the part that extends west‐southwest, from southernmost New Ireland.