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Earth science

Tiny triggers deep down

Nature volume 424, pages 893–894 (2003)Cite this article

The documentation and characterization of remotely triggered earthquakes deep within the Earth is an achievement that provides insight into the mechanisms that initiate such events.

Earthquakes occur widely in the planet's crust and to depths approaching 700 km in subduction zones, where oceanic crust and the associated 50–100 km of mantle dive back into Earth as the return flow of plate tectonics. But we know little about the physics of earthquake initiation (nucleation), especially at great depth, because the mechanisms known to operate close to the surface — brittle failure of virgin rock, or frictional sliding on a pre-existing fault — cannot occur at the high pressures at depth1.

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Figure 1: Earthquakes and subducted slabs beneath the Tonga–Fiji area.

References

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  1. the Department of Earth Sciences, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, 92521, California, USA

    Harry W. Green II

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  1. Harry W. Green II
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Green, H. Tiny triggers deep down. Nature 424, 893–894 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424893a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/424893a

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