Seismology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors show that seismogenic faults can be activated by stress perturbations by all possible modes of slip independently of the frictional properties. They demonstrate, that the nature of seismicity is mostly governed by the initial stress level along the faults.

    • François X. Passelègue
    • , Michelle Almakari
    •  & Marie Violay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The transition from wide continental rift to continental break-up remains enigmatic. Here, the authors show that northern margin of the South China Sea records the transition between wide continental rift to a highly extended continental margin, with strikingly similar structures and metamorphic core complexes to those described from the North American Cordillera and the Aegean.

    • Hongdan Deng
    • , Jianye Ren
    •  & Pan Luo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origin of deep long-period earthquakes beneath active volcanoes that are sometimes considered as precursors to eruptions remains not fully understood. Here the authors show that these earthquakes can be generated by the rapid degassing in response to the slow decompression of magma over-saturated with H2O and CO2.

    • Oleg Melnik
    • , Vladimir Lyakhovsky
    •  & Olga Bergal-Kuvikas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Regions of the subducting oceanic crust are often considered to be overpressured, owing to fluid trapped beneath an impermeable seal along the overlying inter-plate boundary. Here, the authors show that slow slip earthquakes at the Cascadia subduction zone occur immediately below a 6-10 km-thick shear zone, in which slab-derived fluids are likely trapped at near-lithostatic pore pressures.

    • Andrew J. Calvert
    • , Michael G. Bostock
    •  & Martyn J. Unsworth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, the authors investigate the predictability of sudden eruptions, motivated by the 2019 eruption at Whakaari (White Island), New Zealand. The paper proposes a machine learning approach that is able to identify eruption precursors in data streaming from a single seismic station at Whakaari.

    • D. E. Dempsey
    • , S. J. Cronin
    •  & A. W. Kempa-Liehr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province is the most aerially extensive magmatic event in Earth’s history, yet few constraints exist on the volumes of intrusions at depth. Here, the authors find limited intrusive volumes beneath the South Georgia Rift, consistent with modest potential mantle temperatures (<1500 °C) related to syn-rift decompression melting.

    • R. E. Marzen
    • , D. J. Shillington
    •  & S. H. Harder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earth surface continues to slip after large earthquakes at a slow velocity for a period of a year or more. In this study, the authors show how such slow slip before and after large earthquakes relates to the interaction of the brittle zone of the fault with the ductile zone at greater depth.

    • Giuseppe Petrillo
    • , Eugenio Lippiello
    •  & Alberto Rosso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Subglacial lakes and jökulhlaups (glacier outburst floods) are common in volcanic and glaciated environments, and can pose potential threats to communities living downstream. Here, the authors find that seismic tremor signals during subglacial floods can be used to locate and track the speed and size of the flood before it arrives at the river system, and improves previous methods of early glacial flood warning by a factor of 5.

    • Eva P. S. Eibl
    • , Christopher J. Bean
    •  & Kristin S. Vogfjörd

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Applying high-pressure and -temperature experiments, the authors here measure sound velocities in various liquid Fe-S alloys under conditions expected for the upper Martian core. The results together with future InSight mission data will help to understand whether the Martian core is molten Fe-S.

    • Keisuke Nishida
    • , Yuki Shibazaki
    •  & Kei Hirose

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Slow slip events are commonly observed on natural faults all around the world and are suggested to precede large magnitude and/or high frequency earthquakes. The authors here identify merging phases of slow slip events using continuous GPS measurements and define areas and periods at risk of large earthquake occurrence.

    • Quentin Bletery
    •  & Jean-Mathieu Nocquet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The dynamics of continental subduction is largely controlled by the rheological properties of rocks involved along the subduction channel. Here, the authors reveal a prominent, yet previously undetected, low-velocity body beneath the Western Alps, along the plate interface between the European slab and the overlying Adriatic mantle, which they interpret as a serpentinite layer.

    • Liang Zhao
    • , Marco G. Malusà
    •  & Stefano Solarino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The motions of subducted slabs are expected to drive mantle flow around slab edges, however, evidence of deep mantle flow has so far remained elusive. Here, the authors present a Full Waveform Inversion 3-D anisotropy model which allows them to infer deep subduction-induced mantle flows underneath the Mid-Americas and the Caribbean.

    • Hejun Zhu
    • , Robert J. Stern
    •  & Jidong Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Indian continental subduction can explain crustal deformation, magmatic activity and uplift of the Tibetan Plateau following collision, however, the nature of the Indian subducting slab beneath Myanmar and the related tectonic regime remain unclear. Here, the authors present direct structural evidence of present-day Indian continental subduction beneath Asia.

    • Tianyu Zheng
    • , Yumei He
    •  & Myo Thant

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study investigates deep intracontinental earthquakes. Based on field data from exhumed lower crustal pseudotachylytes and mylonites from Lofoten, northern Norway, the authors describe a novel model of earthquake nucleation in the lower crust as a transient consequence of ongoing localised aseismic creep.

    • L. R. Campbell
    • , L. Menegon
    •  & G. Pennacchioni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using data recorded by a new seafloor seismic network, the authors reveal the detailed 3D structure of the source zone of the great 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake, which sheds new light on the mechanism of the great earthquake and tsunami.

    • Yuanyuan Hua
    • , Dapeng Zhao
    •  & Yixian Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Decrease of friction during seismic slip is linked to temperature increase and weak phases production inside the fault core. Here the authors propose a mathematical framework which explains the frictional behaviour of all materials reported in literature and precisely captures material weakening during fault slip.

    • Hadrien Rattez
    •  & Manolis Veveakis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cratons represent the ancient cores of continental plates and are generally thought to have been stable since the Archean. Here however, the authors combine seismic analysis with kimberlite data to infer complete destruction of cratonic lithosphere in some places of the African continent.

    • Nicolas Luca Celli
    • , Sergei Lebedev
    •  & Carmen Gaina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The D\({}^{{\prime\prime} }\) layer in the Earth’s lower mantle involves a seismic discontinuity which is often assigned to a mineral phase transition to post-perovskite, however, as this phase transition occurs over broad region the assignment of seismic boundaries remains unclear. Here, the authors find that due to the kinetics of the bridgmanite to post-perovskite transformation, thick transition layers can be detected by seismic reflections, unlike previously thought.

    • Christopher Langrand
    • , Denis Andrault
    •  & Sébastien Merkel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The long-term stability of Precambrian continental lithosphere depends on the rheology of the lithospheric mantle as well as the coupling between crust and mantle lithosphere. Here, the authors study crustal seismic anisotropy to reveal that the crust and mantle lithosphere of southern Africa have been coupled since cratonisation, over 2 billion years ago.

    • H. Thybo
    • , M. Youssof
    •  & I. M. Artemieva

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, the authors monitor a hydrothermal fluid surge through seismic anisotropy changes at the Hakone volcanic field, Japan. The authors find the anisotropy changes to be set off by the seismic waves of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, that reactivated the hydrothermal system.

    • Maria Saade
    • , Kohtaro Araragi
    •  & Florent Brenguier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The USArray of EarthScope is a seismic broadband network acquiring global seismic data. Here, the authors apply an iterative rank-reduction method to obtain free earthquake data at locations where no seismic stations are available as well as enhancing existing data recorded by the USArray.

    • Yangkang Chen
    • , Min Bai
    •  & Yunfeng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Can we pump water into deep active volcanic areas? Here, the authors model the effect of water circulation into supercritical geothermal systems and show that the effect of rock cooling dominates the seismicity increase over the pore pressure changes.

    • Francesco Parisio
    • , Victor Vilarrasa
    •  & Thomas Nagel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forecasting aftershock earthquakes is a critical step in improving seismic hazard mitigation. The authors here combine Bayesian methods with extreme value theory to tackle this problem - and manage to estimate the maximum magnitude of an expected earthquake as well as the arrival times in a pre-defined window.

    • Robert Shcherbakov
    • , Jiancang Zhuang
    •  & Yosihiko Ogata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Al-Idrissi Fault System in the Alboran Sea is a major tectonic structure in its initial stage. By using bathymetric and seismic reflection data, the authors unravel a 3D geometry for the AIFS, which corresponds to a crustal-scale boundary and provides a unique model of the inception and growth of a young plate boundary fault system.

    • Eulàlia Gràcia
    • , Ingo Grevemeyer
    •  & César R. Ranero

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oilfield wastewater is commonly discarded by pumping it into deep geologic formations, but this process is now known to cause earthquakes. Here, he authors show that high-density oilfield wastewater may sink deeper in the Earth’s crust than previously considered possible, thus increasing fluid pressure and inducing earthquakes for years after injection rates decline.

    • Ryan M. Pollyea
    • , Martin C. Chapman
    •  & Hao Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The state of the Main Marmara Fault (fault segment of the North Anatolian Fault) is widely discussed, towards whether it is creeping or locked. The authors here present seafloor geodetic measurements which indicate a complete locking of the fault in the central part of the Sea of Marmara. This provides significant information for the assessment of both seismic and potential tsunami hazard to Istanbul.

    • Dietrich Lange
    • , Heidrun Kopp
    •  & Louis Géli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The timing and locations of aftershocks following the initial impact of an earthquake are key to mitigate potential further hazards. Here the authors use the seismic ground velocity as input parameter to provide accurate probabilities of post seismic occurrence within 30 min of the main shock.

    • E. Lippiello
    • , G. Petrillo
    •  & V. Karakostas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tidal triggering of earthquakes at Axial Volcano on the Juan de Fuca ridge is shown to be driven by tidally induced magma chamber inflation. Fitting the data to theory requires that the frictional parameter A be much smaller than laboratory measurements indicate.

    • Christopher H. Scholz
    • , Yen Joe Tan
    •  & Fabien Albino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the 1000 km long Izu-Bonin subduction zone to the south of Tokyo, the Pacific Plate descends beneath the Philippine Sea Plate. Here the authors use teleseismic double-difference tomography to image the complex morphology of the Izu-Bonin slab, especially in the mantle transition zone.

    • Haijiang Zhang
    • , Fan Wang
    •  & Hao Guo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effect of fluid viscosity on fault mechanics is mainly conjectured by theoretical models. Here, the authors present experimental data from rock friction experiments, showing both static and dynamic friction coefficients to decrease with viscosity and dynamic friction to depend on the Sommerfeld number.

    • C. Cornelio
    • , E. Spagnuolo
    •  & M. Violay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake in New Zealand raised the discussion about how a complex fault system operates. Here the authors propose a dynamic rupture scenario that reproduces key characteristics of the event and show that the fault system works at low apparent friction.

    • Thomas Ulrich
    • , Alice-Agnes Gabriel
    •  & Wenbin Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is increasing evidence that the seismicity of large Himalayan earthquakes can be bimodal, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors present a model and show that the bimodal seismicity results from a relatively higher friction and a non-planar geometry of the Himalayan megathrust.

    • Luca Dal Zilio
    • , Ylona van Dinther
    •  & Jean-Philippe Avouac

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interaction between seasonally-induced non-tectonic and tectonic deformation along the Himalayan plate boundary is still debated. Here, the authors propose that seasonal hydrological loading can influence tectonic deformation along this plate boundary using continuous GPS measurements and satellite data.

    • Dibyashakti Panda
    • , Bhaskar Kundu
    •  & Amit Kumar Bansal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reinjection of saltwater, co-produced with oil, has the potential to trigger damaging earthquakes. Here, using Oklahoma and Kansas as an example, the authors present a new physics-based methodology to forecast future probabilities of potentially damaging induced-earthquakes in space and time.

    • Cornelius Langenbruch
    • , Matthew Weingarten
    •  & Mark D. Zoback

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bend faulting prior to subduction is considered to promote hydration, yet the relationship remains ambiguous. Here, via analysis of seismic surveys from the Japan and Kuril trenches junction, the authors show that pre-subduction bend faulting and post-subduction plate hydration are strongly correlated.

    • Gou Fujie
    • , Shuichi Kodaira
    •  & Tomoaki Yamada

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