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Article |
Ridgecrest aftershocks at Coso suppressed by thermal destressing
Thirty years of geothermal heat production at Coso in California depleted shear stresses within the geothermal reservoir, which changed its faulting style and inhibited aftershocks from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake.
- Kyungjae Im
- , Jean-Philippe Avouac
- & Derek Elsworth
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Research Highlight |
A small earthquake could pose a big risk to a US city
The structure of faults beneath Salt Lake City, Utah, shows how the ground could liquefy during a shaking.
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Article |
Plume-driven recratonization of deep continental lithospheric mantle
Upwelling of mantle plumes is proposed as a mechanism for craton healing after substantial disruption of their roots, enabling them to return to their original lithospheric thickness.
- Jingao Liu
- , D. Graham Pearson
- & John P. Armstrong
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Article |
Earthquakes indicated magma viscosity during Kīlauea’s 2018 eruption
Rotated fault-plane solutions in earthquake swarms at volcanoes could provide an early indication of relatively viscous magma, and hence of the style and hazard potential of an impending eruption.
- D. C. Roman
- , A. Soldati
- & B. R. Shiro
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Article |
Propagation of large earthquakes as self-healing pulses or mild cracks
Numerical simulations indicate that seismological observations of large megathrust earthquakes are better matched by crack-like ruptures on persistently weak faults than by self-healing pulse-like ruptures on stronger faults.
- Valère Lambert
- , Nadia Lapusta
- & Stephen Perry
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Article |
A thin mantle transition zone beneath the equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Data from ocean bottom seismometers show that the mantle transition zone beneath the equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ridge is thin and warm, which suggests more material transfer than previously thought.
- Matthew R. Agius
- , Catherine A. Rychert
- & J.-Michael Kendall
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Article |
Seismic evidence for partial melt below tectonic plates
Analysis of global three-dimensional shear attenuation and velocity models implies that partial melting in the seismic low-velocity zone enables motion of oceanic plates by reducing the viscosity of the asthenosphere.
- Eric Debayle
- , Thomas Bodin
- & Yanick Ricard
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Article |
Variable water input controls evolution of the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc
Serpentine subducted below the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc supplies water to the arc, controlling the location of seismicity, volcanic productivity and thickness of crust.
- George F. Cooper
- , Colin G. Macpherson
- & Marjorie Wilson
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News Feature |
The new science of volcanoes harnesses AI, satellites and gas sensors to forecast eruptions
Forty years after the Mount St Helens eruption galvanized volcano researchers, they are using powerful new tools to spy on the world’s most dangerous mountains.
- Jane Palmer
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News |
Coronavirus lockdowns have changed the way Earth moves
A reduction in seismic noise because of changes in human activity is a boon for geoscientists.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Article |
Intraplate volcanism originating from upwelling hydrous mantle transition zone
The widespread intraplate volcanism in northeast China and the unusual ‘petit-spot’ volcanoes offshore Japan could have resulted from the interaction of the subducting Pacific slab with a hydrous mantle transition zone.
- Jianfeng Yang
- & Manuele Faccenda
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News |
Scientists fear major volcanic eruption in the Philippines
Activity on the volcanic island Taal has eased, but scientists say the threat is far from over.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Correspondence |
Earthquake prediction: heed the signs and save lives
- Sergio Bertolucci
- , Francesco Mulargia
- & Domenico Giardini
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Article |
Upper-plate rigidity determines depth-varying rupture behaviour of megathrust earthquakes
Models compiled from subduction zones worldwide show that the elastic properties of the rock overlying shallow subduction megathrusts can be used to estimate potential slip, possibly enabling early tsunami warnings.
- Valentí Sallarès
- & César R. Ranero
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Article |
Similar scaling laws for earthquakes and Cascadia slow-slip events
A new catalogue of slow-slip events on the Cascadia megathrust shows that a cubic moment–duration scaling law is likely, with scaling properties strikingly similar to regular earthquakes.
- Sylvain Michel
- , Adriano Gualandi
- & Jean-Philippe Avouac
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News & Views |
Determining whether the worst earthquake has passed
When a big earthquake occurs, it is hard to tell if it will be followed by a larger quake or by only smaller ones. A method has been developed that aims to distinguish between these scenarios while events are still unfolding.
- Emily E. Brodsky
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Estimating earthquake risk, and difficulties for deep-learning
Hear the latest science news, with Benjamin Thompson and Nick Howe.
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Article |
Real-time discrimination of earthquake foreshocks and aftershocks
Changes in the average size distribution of earthquakes are used to discriminate between foreshocks and aftershocks, and a traffic light classification is proposed for the real-time assessment of the probability of a subsequent larger event.
- Laura Gulia
- & Stefan Wiemer
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: One neuron versus deep learning in aftershock prediction
- Brendan J. Meade
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Matters Arising |
One neuron versus deep learning in aftershock prediction
- Arnaud Mignan
- & Marco Broccardo
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Letter |
Frequent observations of identical onsets of large and small earthquakes
Analysis of a dataset of high-sensitivity Tohoku–Hokkaido seismograph records shows that pairs of subduction-type earthquakes of different sizes have very similar initial characteristics, implying that the final size of an earthquake cannot be reliably predicted from these.
- Satoshi Ide
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Tiny earthquakes, the genetics of height, and how US-China politics is affecting research
Benjamin Thompson talks to Nature's European Bureau Chief Nisha Gaind about the lastest science news.
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News |
First ‘marsquake’ detected on red planet
NASA’s InSight lander hears seismic energy rippling through Mars.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Algorithms spot millions of California’s tiniest quakes in historical data
Project identifies reams of imperceptible tremors that can help to image fault lines in unprecedented detail.
- Robin Andrews
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News |
GPS glitch threatens thousands of scientific instruments
A quirk in how Global Positioning System signals are time-stamped risks messing up devices’ data from 6 April.
- Declan Butler
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News |
Quake-prone Myanmar leads the way in seismic monitoring
The fledgling democracy is opening up to the world – leading to a transformation in how it monitors earthquakes.
- Alexandra Witze
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Books & Arts |
Human evolution’s ties to tectonics
Kevin Padian applauds a book on the planet’s role in our biological and cultural development.
- Kevin Padian
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News & Views |
High-pressure experiments cast light on deep-Earth mineralogy
A technically challenging analysis has revealed the physical properties of a mineral at pressures and temperatures as high as those in Earth’s mantle. The findings have implications for our understanding of Earth’s deep interior.
- Johannes Buchen
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Letter |
Sound velocity of CaSiO3 perovskite suggests the presence of basaltic crust in the Earth’s lower mantle
In situ high-pressure and high-temperature measurements of the sound velocity of CaSiO3 perovskite suggest accumulation of basaltic crust in the Earth’s uppermost lower mantle.
- Steeve Gréaux
- , Tetsuo Irifune
- & Akihiro Yamada
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News |
Earthquake-risk maps pinpoint world’s most vulnerable areas
Indonesia and India are among the countries with the most people at risk.
- Alexandra Witze
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News & Views |
Water takes a deep dive into an oceanic tectonic plate
A tectonic plate descending into the Mariana Trench carries sea water deep into Earth’s interior. It seems that much more water enters Earth at this location than was thought — with implications for the global water budget.
- Donna J. Shillington
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Letter |
Water input into the Mariana subduction zone estimated from ocean-bottom seismic data
Seismic images of Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle around the Mariana trench show widespread serpentinization, suggesting that much more water is subducted than previously thought.
- Chen Cai
- , Douglas A. Wiens
- & Melody Eimer
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Letter |
Deep learning of aftershock patterns following large earthquakes
Neural networks trained on data from about 130,000 aftershocks from around 100 large earthquakes improve predictions of the spatial distribution of aftershocks and suggest physical quantities that may control earthquake triggering.
- Phoebe M. R. DeVries
- , Fernanda Viégas
- & Brendan J. Meade
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Research Highlight |
Fault reversal a harbinger of large quakes
Seafloor slippage may have presaged catastrophic 2011 event in Japan.
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News |
Mars quakes set to reveal tantalizing clues to planet’s early years
NASA’s Mars InSight mission will listen for seismic activity to uncover details of red planet’s mysterious core.
- Alexandra Witze
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Letter |
Earthquake-induced transformation of the lower crust
During continent collision and associated mountain building, a surprisingly large volume of the lower crust is shown to be affected by earthquake aftershocks, producing a top-down effect on crustal geodynamics.
- Bjørn Jamtveit
- , Yehuda Ben-Zion
- & Håkon Austrheim
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News |
How San Francisco’s next big quake could play out
Tremors in Nepal and New Zealand help scientists to predict how a magnitude-7.0 quake would affect the California city.
- Alexandra Witze
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Letter |
Redox-influenced seismic properties of upper-mantle olivine
Redox conditions and associated defect chemistry rather than water content, as previously thought, strongly influence the seismic properties of olivine, the main constituent mineral of Earth’s upper mantle.
- C. J. Cline II
- , U. H. Faul
- & I. Jackson
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News |
Gravity signals could speedily warn of big quakes and save lives
The trick lies in capturing the weak gravitational shifts in the ground.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
Tidal tomography constrains Earth’s deep-mantle buoyancy
An estimate of Earth’s deep-mantle buoyancy is derived from GPS-based measurements of body tide deformation and shown to be dominated by dense material possibly related to subducted oceanic plates or primordial rock.
- Harriet C. P. Lau
- , Jerry X. Mitrovica
- & David Al-Attar
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News |
Risk of human-triggered earthquakes laid out in biggest-ever database
Geologists track hundreds of quakes caused by people and the projects that set them off.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Deadly Mexico quakes not linked
Despite close timing, researchers doubt that the first big tremor set off the second.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Pair of deadly Mexico quakes puzzles scientists
Latest big tremor could be linked to major earthquake earlier this month.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Seismologists stumped by mystery shock after North Korean nuclear test
A second jolt felt minutes after this month's detonation continues to confound researchers.
- David Cyranoski
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News |
Deadly Mexico earthquake had unusual cause
US Geological Survey says tremor was within the Cocos Plate, not at the plate boundary.
- Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
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Books & Arts |
Seismology: Quake news from America
Roger Bilham savours two rich accounts of seismicity across the continent.
- Roger Bilham
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News |
Huge landslide triggered rare Greenland mega-tsunami
Scientists hope studying last month’s deadly event will improve modelling of rockslides that could become more frequent with climate change.
- Quirin Schiermeier
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Editorial |
Protect funding for US earthquake early-warning system
Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to ShakeAlert puts the west coast at risk.
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Editorial |
Heatwaves to soar above the hot air of climate politics
Future generations will fear, rather than fend for, the global environment.