By analyzing forty deep earthquakes around the world, researchers discover the key role of a dual mechanism that allows earthquakes to grow larger and release more stress.
subduction
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Atomic-Scale Insights into Supercritical Silicate Fluids
Water-induced depolymerization enhances fluid mobility in deep Earth, offering new insights into magma transport and isotope signatures in arc lavas.
Posted inScience Updates
The Deep Frontier of Mantle Magma Supply
Compared with crustal magma systems, little is known about the deep sources of volcanic supply chains. Interdisciplinary efforts can help answer key questions about how magma migrates from the mantle.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Water Stored in the Mantle for Millions of Years May Be Linked to Continental Volcanism
New research shows that intraplate volcanism is more likely to occur over areas of the mantle that are more hydrated—particularly those that have been hydrated for a long, long time.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How (Slow) Earthquakes Get Going
Non-volcanic tremor ramp up precedes slow slip in Cascadia by about a day, indicating that brittle-creeping process interactions control nucleation.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Skewed Subduction Shear Zones
A global reanalysis of both short- and long-term deformation clarifies how obliquity affects strain partitioning in convergent plate boundaries.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Slow But Powerful Fault Slip Can Simply Arise from Fluid Flow
Cyclic changes of fluid pressure in fault zones can induce slow-slip events that advance in the direction of fluid flow, even when the faults are stable.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Modeling the Long and Short of Subduction Zones
A new subduction model could reveal important insights about megathrust earthquakes.
Posted inNews
Hot Spot Lavas Around the World May Have Something in Common
A global study of lavas from volcanic hot spots suggests that contrary to accepted wisdom, Earth’s deep mantle may have the same composition throughout. Not everyone is convinced, however.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Seismotectonic Update of the Philippines-Taiwan Region
Using more than two decades of data, scientists find that the Philippine and Taiwan subduction region is controlled mainly by shallow seismicity and low magnitude earthquakes.