By modeling dehydration-driven fluid pressure, a new study links deep fluids to where megathrust earthquakes end and slow slip begins.
subduction
Ancient Subduction May Have Seeded Today’s Critical Mineral Deposits
The fertilized mantle lithosphere may play an important first step in the formation of carbonatite deposits, known to host critical minerals.
Recycled Rocks Reveal Subduction Zone Dynamics Off Baja California
High-pressure rocks on Cedros Island were exhumed, eroded, and redeposited into the subduction trench multiple times, reshaping interpretations of ancient plate boundary processes.
Seismic Attenuation Techniques Reveal What Lies Beneath Taiwan
A new imaging modality explores the complex subduction‐collision transition zone below southern Taiwan.
Hydrothermal Heat Flow as a Window into Subsurface Arc Magmas
What can warm fluids in arc crust tell us about how much magma is lurking underground? Hydrothermal heat fluxes provide constraints on the supply of magma from the mantle in subduction zones.
What do BLOBs Have to Do with Earth’s Magnetic Field? A Lot, It Turns Out
Enormous provinces of superheated mantle exert a powerful influence over our planet’s magnetic field, researchers have discovered.
Kyanite Exsolution Reveals Ultra-Deep Subduction of Continents
Laboratory experiments provide the first experimental evidence that continental rocks can be subducted to depths greater than 300 kilometers and return to the surface.
Frictional Properties of the Nankai Accretionary Prism
A database of frictional properties from IODP drilling materials explores the range of slip spectrum and the generation of slow to fast earthquakes in the Nankai subduction zone in light of mineralogy.
Changes in Slab Dip Cause Rapid Changes in Plate Motion
Periods of slab shallowing in the South American subduction zone appear to cause decelerations in Nazca plate motion.
