Seismology articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Letter |

    Africa’s topography is characterized by large-scale uplifted domes and subsided basins. Numerical simulations of mantle flow suggest that high topography along Africa’s eastern margin formed as a result of the northward migration of the tectonic plate over the African superplume during the past 30 million years.

    • Robert Moucha
    •  & Alessandro M. Forte

  • Letter |

    Movement of the down-going oceanic plate in subduction zones is accommodated by earthquakes, slow slip and free slip with increasing depth. Analysis of accompanying tremor reveals a continuum of slow-slip events in the Cascadia subduction zone, which suggests that deep free slip of the subducted plate may cause stress to be gradually transferred up the plate interface towards the seismogenic zone.

    • Aaron G. Wech
    •  & Kenneth C. Creager

  • Letter |

    Faults are generally assumed to be more complicated at the surface than at depth. Analysis of the 2010 El Mayor–Cucapah earthquake, in contrast, reveals that the surface trace is nearly straight but the fault must be highly segmented at depth, thus the characteristics of this earthquake could not have been anticipated from surface geology.

    • Shengji Wei
    • , Eric Fielding
    •  & Richard Briggs

  • Article |

    The Longmen Shan Mountains rise up 6,000 m over a distance of just 100 km, but the mechanisms driving formation of this striking topography are debated. Analyses of crustal movements during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake suggest that fault-induced uplift plays a role in building the high topography.

    • Wang Qi
    • , Qiao Xuejun
    •  & Chen Gang

  • Letter |

    Earth’s largest earthquakes occur at the boundary between subducting oceanic crust and the overriding plate, yet the position of the plate boundaries remains uncertain. Analysis of zones of low seismic wave velocities beneath the northern Cascadia subduction zone implies that the plate boundary here may be deeper than previously thought.

    • Andrew J. Calvert
    • , Leiph A. Preston
    •  & Amir M. Farahbod

  • News & Views |

    The southern San Andreas fault is due for a large earthquake. Seismic images of sediments deposited in an ancient lake overlying the southern end of the fault indicate that episodic flooding may have triggered earthquakes in the past.

    • John A. Hole

  • Article |

    The southern San Andreas fault terminates in a stepover zone — several small faults that separate major fault segments — beneath the Salton Sea. Analysis of movements on the stepover zone faults indicates that periodic flooding of the palaeo-Salton Sea during the late Holocene could have triggered earthquakes on the San Andreas fault.

    • Daniel Brothers
    • , Debi Kilb
    •  & Graham Kent

  • Letter |

    Sediments accumulated in a subduction trench are usually unconsolidated and impede the updip propagation of fault rupture during an earthquake. Seismic images of the southern Sumatra–Andaman trench reveal blocks of consolidated sediment that may have enabled fault rupture in 2004 to propagate up fault dip, thus further seaward, increasing the tsunami magnitude.

    • Sean P. S. Gulick
    • , James A. Austin Jr
    •  & Haryadi Permana

  • Editorial |

    Seismic risk is poorly known in many places on Earth. To save lives it is necessary — but by no means sufficient — to map the faults that pose a threat more accurately.

  • News & Views |

    Great earthquakes along the western, subduction zone boundary of the Andes Mountains in South America are expected. Measurements of surface motion along the eastern boundary highlight the potential for equally large earthquakes in the east.

    • Nadine McQuarrie

  • Commentary |

    The potential for earthquakes along the plate boundaries has been mapped with reasonable success. Our attention should now focus on the threat posed by unanticipated quakes located in the continental interiors.

    • Philip England
    •  & James Jackson

  • Article |

    Slow slip of the down-going plate at subduction zones can generate seismic tremor. Analysis of recent large tremor and slip episodes along the Cascadia subduction zone reveals tremor signals that reverse and rapidly migrate back along the previously ruptured fault, implying that the initial fault slip weakened the plate interface.

    • Heidi Houston
    • , Brent G. Delbridge
    •  & Kenneth C. Creager

  • Letter |

    The seismic hazard associated with individual faults can be assessed from the distribution of slip and the recurrence time of earthquakes. Analysis of the offsets of stream channels and terraces caused during five historical earthquakes on the Fuyun fault, China, reveals characteristic fault slip of about six metres for each event.

    • Y. Klinger
    • , M. Etchebes
    •  & C. Narteau

  • Letter |

    Shallow earthquakes lead to the uplift of mountain ranges, but also trigger landslides that remove mass. An analysis of the 2008 Wenshuan earthquake suggests that more material was removed from the orogen by widespread landslides than was added by coseismic uplift.

    • Robert N. Parker
    • , Alexander L. Densmore
    •  & David N. Petley

  • Letter |

    Radiating seismic waves can generate tremor on faults that are far away from the original earthquake source. Analysis of seismic wave data from the San Andreas fault reveals episodes of tremor, triggered by far-off earthquakes, which record a prolonged creeping of the fault that could potentially trigger another earthquake.

    • David R. Shelly
    • , Zhigang Peng
    •  & Chastity Aiken

  • Letter |

    The western margin of the Andes Mountains often experiences large earthquakes, but the potential size of earthquakes along the eastern margin is unknown. Analysis of GPS data shows that a substantial section of the eastern margin is locked and could rupture in an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 8.9.

    • Benjamin A. Brooks
    • , Michael Bevis
    •  & Robert J. Smalley Jr

  • Letter |

    The subduction of topographic features has been linked both to earthquake generation and the segmentation of faults. Seismic imaging reveals a seamount subducted to 40-km depth below Sumatra that is associated with an aseismic zone, suggesting that at this location, the seamount reduces coupling of the slab and overriding plate.

    • Satish C. Singh
    • , Nugroho Hananto
    •  & Heri Harjono

  • Letter |

    Earthquakes trigger damaging aftershocks in nearby regions, but whether they also trigger large earthquakes over significant distances has been unclear. Analysis of seismic data since 1979 suggests that earthquakes triggered more large shocks only over distances of about 1,000 km, and did not increase the seismic hazard risk on a global scale.

    • Tom Parsons
    •  & Aaron A. Velasco

  • Letter |

    The 2010 Haiti earthquake was initially thought to have ruptured the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault, but previously unrecognized faults were later implicated. Radar imaging of surface deformation caused by the earthquake reveals uplift of alluvial fans and subsidence of mountains, consistent with reverse motion on a blind thrust fault.

    • Manabu Hashimoto
    • , Yo Fukushima
    •  & Yukitoshi Fukahata

  • Article |

    Continental lithosphere can undergo pervasive internal deformation, but patterns of flow within the lithosphere are difficult to observe. Determination of seismic Rayleigh-wave anisotropy in the crust and mantle of the Aegean region reveal matching orientations of regional-scale anisotropic fabric and the directions of extension during the last significant episodes of deformation.

    • Brigitte Endrun
    • , Sergei Lebedev
    •  & Wolfgang Friederich

  • Letter |

    Deformation in the crust and mantle — measured using seismic anisotropy — is poorly constrained in the western United States because of inconsistencies in the existing data. A three-dimensional model that reconciles these discrepancies reveals that seismic anisotropy in the crust correlates with different geological provinces, but is unrelated to anisotropy in the underlying mantle.

    • Fan-Chi Lin
    • , Michael H. Ritzwoller
    •  & Matthew J. Fouch

  • Editorial |

    Geophysical analyses of the 2010 Haiti earthquake suggest that there is still potential for seismic activity in the region. Building a more resilient country is the only option.

  • Commentary |

    Geoscience has played a key role in the recovery of Haiti since the earthquake, but warnings were not heeded in the political sphere. Along with better houses, an adaptive disaster-management infrastructure that incorporates science needs to be built.

    • Arthur Lerner-Lam

  • News & Views |

    The Haiti earthquake ruptured one or more buried faults, generated tsunamis and caused extensive structural damage in Port-au-Prince. Investigations in the epicentral region quantify seismic hazards but offer no clear views of Haiti's seismic future.

    • Roger Bilham

  • Backstory |

    Matthew J. Hornbach and colleagues navigated shallow debris-filled waters in an attempt to understand the factors that contributed to tsunami generation during the Haiti earthquake.

  • Letter |

    The Enriquillo–Plantain Garden strike-slip fault accommodates the relative motion between the North American and Caribbean plates and was thought to have ruptured during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Satellite data instead indicate that a blind thrust fault, possibly related to the Haitian fold–thrust belt, was responsible and caused some contractional deformation.

    • Eric Calais
    • , Andrew Freed
    •  & Roberte Momplaisir

  • Letter |

    The Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone is the primary plate-bounding fault system in Haiti and was initially thought to be responsible for the 2010 earthquake. Palaeoseismic analyses of the fault system indicate that it ruptured during a large earthquake in either 1750 or 1770, but did not rupture during the 2010 earthquake.

    • C. S. Prentice
    • , P. Mann
    •  & P. Jean

  • Backstory |

    Susan E. Hough and colleagues faced logistical challenges when attempting to deploy portable seismometers in post-earthquake Port-au-Prince.

  • Letter |

    Microzonation maps use local geological conditions to characterize seismic hazard, but do not generally consider topography. Ground motions during the Haiti earthquake are found to have been significantly amplified along a high topographic ridge, which caused substantial structural damage, indicating that topography can play an important role in seismic hazard.

    • Susan E. Hough
    • , Jean Robert Altidor
    •  & Alan Yong

  • Letter |

    The 12 January 2010 Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake exhibited primarily strike-slip motion but unusually generated a tsunami. An extensive field survey reveals that coastal strike-slip fault systems produce relief conducive to rapid sedimentation, erosion and slope failure, so that even modest predominantly strike-slip earthquakes can cause potentially catastrophic slide-generated tsunamis.

    • Matthew J. Hornbach
    • , Nicole Braudy
    •  & John Templeton

  • Article |

    Initially, the devastating 12 January 2010 Haiti earthquake seemed to involve straightforward accommodation of the motion between the Caribbean and North American plates. A combination of seismological observations, geologic field data and space geodetic measurements shows that the rupture process may have involved slip on multiple faults, but lacked significant surface deformation.

    • G. P. Hayes
    • , R. W. Briggs
    •  & M. Simons

  • Letter |

    Above the 410-km discontinuity in the upper mantle, an intermittent layer characterized by low seismic-wave velocities is thought to represent partial melting in areas of subduction or mantle-plume activity. Seismic data now show that the low-velocity layer extends globally with no affinity to a particular tectonic environment.

    • Benoît Tauzin
    • , Eric Debayle
    •  & Gérard Wittlinger

  • Article |

    Volcanic fields at the eastern margin of the Red Sea rift were regarded as seismically quiet until a swarm of 30,000 earthquakes struck in 2009. Geological analyses reveal the intrusion of a volcanic dyke and indicate that rift-related extension is spread over a broad region far from the rift axis.

    • John S. Pallister
    • , Wendy A. McCausland
    •  & Mohammed R. H. Moufti

  • Article |

    Seismotectonic studies seek to provide ways of assessing the timing, magnitude and spatial extent of future earthquakes. Numerical simulations of seismic and aseismic fault slip in a fully dynamical numerical model open the possibility of predicting a fault system’s seismic rupture patterns from observations of its slip properties.

    • Yoshihiro Kaneko
    • , Jean-Philippe Avouac
    •  & Nadia Lapusta

  • Commentary |

    Twitter messages offer first-hand accounts of earthquakes within minutes. Analyses of their content and geographic distribution can be a useful supplement to instrument-based estimates of quake location and magnitude.

    • Paul Earle

  • Editorial |

    Indonesia's tsunami-warning system is scheduled to enter full operational mode by March 2010. The sooner it runs, the better: the threat of a tsunamigenic earthquake in the region is still imminent.

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