Rocks stretch, break, and flow, depending on how and under which conditions they are loaded. A new formulation to better capture Earth’s rheology is explored in the context of plate thickness.
Tectonic deformation
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Slow Slip By Any Other Name
Earth’s faults slip most catastrophically as earthquakes. The rise of geodesy reveals an array of slower slip events, meaning faults are nearly always active. Are these behaviors really so different?
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Ancient Faults Amplify Intraplate Earthquakes
A comparison of deformation rates from Canada’s Saint Lawrence Valley offers compelling evidence that strain in the region is concentrated along ancient structures from previous tectonic cycles.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Catching Glimpses of Centuries-Old Earthquakes
Researchers in the western United States survey the earthquakes that have torn up California for the past millennium.
Posted inScience Updates
Using Strain Rates to Forecast Seismic Hazards
Workshop on Geodetic Modeling for Seismic Hazard; Menlo Park, California, 19 September 2016
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Models Explain Unexpected Magnitude of China's Wenchuan Quake
The 2008 earthquake surprised scientists, but the inclusion of new variables reveals that Earth's crust under the Sichuan Province was under more strain than previously thought.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Surface Folds Hint at Magnitude of Slip Along Thrust Faults
The shape of deformed sediments at the surface may allow researchers to estimate the cumulative slip along thrust faults such as the Chelungpu fault in Taiwan.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Ancient Earthquakes Made an Island Rise and Fall
Observations track elevation changes of an island in the Kodiak Archipelago to past ruptures of the Alaska-Aleutian megathrust fault.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Changing Crustal Velocities Preceded 2011 Tohoku-oki Quake
Researchers examined the crustal deformation associated with earthquakes that occurred before the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake.