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.
subduction
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.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Cyclic Opening of Deep Fractures Regulates Plate Boundary Slip
Seismic anisotropy changes through time suggest that cyclical opening of fluid-filled fractures is synchronized with subduction zone slow slip events.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Crustal Melts at the Core-Mantle Boundary
Seismic waves get sent in all directions for deep mantle anomalies, and a new analysis shows where those scatters lie and what properties they have.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Mantle Hydration Changes over the Lifetime of a Subduction Zone
Water released from subducting oceanic plates influences the formation of volcanoes and earthquakes on Earth’s surface. A new study simulates how slab dehydration and mantle hydration levels change over time.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Repeated Coseismic Uplift Above the Patton Bay Splay Fault, Alaska
Stratigraphic and diatom analyses suggest ruptures of the Patton Bay splay fault occurred together with half of the documented great Alaskan megathrust earthquakes during the past 4,200 years.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Earth’s Subduction May Have Been Triggered by the Same Event That Formed the Moon
The giant impact that formed the Moon may also have led to extrastrong mantle plumes that enabled the first subduction event, kick-starting Earth’s unique system of sliding plates.
Posted inNews
Earthquakes Can Trigger Megathrust Slip in Cascadia
A 2022 earthquake in Northern California may have triggered slow slip in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, according to a new study.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Forecasting Earthquake Ruptures from Slow Slip Evolution
A new generation of physics-based models that integrate temporal slip evolution over decades to seconds opens new possibilities for understanding how large subduction zone earthquakes occur.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Uncovering Earthquake Evidence in Azerbaijan’s Greater Caucasus Mountains
A new study unearths geological evidence that corroborates historical accounts of large earthquakes along the Kura fold-thrust belt.