Subduction zones with a low dipping angle and thick sediments can produce giant earthquakes; this finding lets researchers estimate worst-case scenarios for coastlines around the world.
subduction
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A Mechanism for Shallow, Slow Earthquakes in Subduction Zones
Slow earthquakes beneath the accretionary prism updip from the locked portion of a subduction zone can be caused by basaltic blocks embedded in a shale matrix.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Controlled the Growth of the Southern Central Andes?
Flat-slab subduction appears to have played a minor role in the growth of the Southern Central Andes, with evidence for eastward migrating deformation.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Land Motion Offers Insights into Cascadia Earthquake Cycle
Comparing recent GPS data with a longer record of sea level along the western coast of North America allows researchers to home in on interseismic deformation above the Cascadia megathrust.
Posted inScience Updates
Modeling Fluid Migration in Subduction Zones
Scientists from different disciplines are working together to identify common challenges in and techniques for modeling fluid migration associated with subduction zone processes.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
The Other, Deeper, South American Flat Slab
Tomographers trace the slab subducting beneath South America into the lower mantle, providing the most complete picture of structure beneath the continent to date.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Extremely High Carbon Return in Certain Volcanic Arcs
By comparing measured volcanic output with subducted carbon fluxes from drill cores, the Lesser Antilles subduction zone shows nearly complete slab carbon release at sub-arc depths.
Posted inNews
Getting to the Bottom of Slow-Motion Earthquakes
For close to 20 years, slow-motion earthquakes have been an enigma. Core samples provide new clues to their origins.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Two Moons and a Magnetosphere
Decades of research have illuminated how Io and Europa shape—and are shaped by—Jupiter’s giant magnetosphere.
Posted inScience Updates
Microbial Influences on Subduction Zone Carbon Cycling
An innovative collaboration is investigating how geobiological processes alter fluxes of carbon and other materials between the deep Earth and the surface.