Tectonics articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using observations of double-difference relocated earthquakes in a local three-dimensional velocity model for Ecuador, a detailed image of seismicity is created, forming the base for more realistic models of earthquake rupture, slip and hazard in subduction zones.

    • Caroline Chalumeau
    • , Hans Agurto-Detzel
    •  & Audrey Galve

  • Article |

    Recent sequences of reverse-faulting earthquakes at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Carlsberg Ridge show that tectonic extension at mid-ocean ridge axes can be partially undone by tectonic shortening across the ridge flanks.

    • Jean-Arthur Olive
    • , Göran Ekström
    •  & Manon Bickert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ages and geochemical compositions of inclusions of sublithospheric diamonds indicate additions to the mantle keel of Gondwana by the underplating of buoyant subducted material, originating from 300–700-km depth, which may have contributed to supercontinent stability during long-distance migration.

    • Suzette Timmerman
    • , Thomas Stachel
    •  & D. Graham Pearson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Most kimberlites erupting in the past billion years on Earth did so about 30 million years after continental breakup, with dynamical and analytical models suggesting a control from rifting-related mantle delamination.

    • Thomas M. Gernon
    • , Stephen M. Jones
    •  & Anne Glerum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic palaeointensity data from the Barberton Greenstone Belt (South Africa) as well as the Jack Hills (Western Australia) show nearly constant palaeofield values between 3.9 Ga and 3.4 Ga, providing evidence for stagnant-lid mantle convection.

    • John A. Tarduno
    • , Rory D. Cottrell
    •  & Gautam Mitra

  • Article |

    Using the new Beaumont number presented, it is concluded that the topographic evolution of collisional mountain belts is determined by the combination of plate velocity, crustal rheology and surface process efficiency.

    • Sebastian G. Wolf
    • , Ritske S. Huismans
    •  & Xiaoping Yuan

  • Review Article |

    Oceanic plate carbon reservoirs are reconstructed and the fate of subducted carbon is tracked using thermodynamic modelling, challenging previous views and providing boundary conditions for future carbon cycle models.

    • R. Dietmar Müller
    • , Ben Mather
    •  & Sabin Zahirovic

  • Article |

    Reconstruction of one billion years of mantle flow shows that mobile basal mantle structures are just as consistent with the Earth’s volcanic history as are fixed mantle structures.

    • Nicolas Flament
    • , Ömer F. Bodur
    •  & Andrew S. Merdith

  • Article |

    A record of Earth’s magnetic field constructed from near-bottom magnetization observations and oriented samples provides three-dimensional imaging of magnetic stripes in fast-spread crust, and suggests slow cooling off-axis, as opposed to deep hydrothermal cooling close to the spreading ridge.

    • Sarah M. Maher
    • , Jeffrey S. Gee
    •  & Barbara E. John

  • Article |

    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

  • Article |

    Modelling reveals how thick diamondiferous continental mantle ‘keels’ were formed only at increased mantle temperatures when the melt-depleted, hot, ductile mantle located under subducting oceanic plates flowed backwards, underplating the continents.

    • A. L. Perchuk
    • , T. V. Gerya
    •  & W. L. Griffin

  • Letter |

    Variability in Earth’s thermal gradients, recorded by metamorphic rocks through time, shows that Earth’s modern plate tectonics developed gradually since the Neoarchaean era, three billion years ago.

    • Robert M. Holder
    • , Daniel R. Viete
    •  & Tim E. Johnson

  • Article |

    The current phase of subduction of the Nazca slab was established in the Peruvian Andes after a plate reorganization around 80 million years ago and then propagated progressively southwards.

    • Yi-Wei Chen
    • , Jonny Wu
    •  & John Suppe

  • Letter |

    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

  • Letter |

    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

  • Letter |

    Earthquake rupture experiments and mathematical modelling reveal the existence of a torquing mechanism of thrust fault ruptures near the free surface that causes them to dynamically unclamp, open and slip large distances.

    • Vahe Gabuchian
    • , Ares J. Rosakis
    •  & Hiroo Kanamori

  • Letter |

    Phase equilibria modelling of rocks from Western Australia confirms that the ancient continental crust could have formed by multistage melting of basaltic ‘parents’ along high geothermal gradients—a process incompatible with modern-style subduction.

    • Tim E. Johnson
    • , Michael Brown
    •  & R. Hugh Smithies

  • Letter |

    By applying a new geotectonic analysis technique to revised global plate reconstructions, rifted margins are shown to feature an initial slow rift phase followed by an abrupt increase of plate divergence prior to breakup.

    • Sascha Brune
    • , Simon E. Williams
    •  & R. Dietmar Müller

  • Letter |

    Rayleigh waves recorded with an ocean-bottom seismograph array in the central Pacific Ocean constrain the seismic anisotropy within the oceanic lithosphere–asthenosphere system: seafloor-spreading-induced lithospheric fabric generates the strongest anisotropy, while density- and/or pressure-driven flow produces a secondary peak in anisotropy at the base of the asthenosphere.

    • Pei-Ying Patty Lin
    • , James B. Gaherty
    •  & Greg Hirth

  • Letter |

    The structure and accretion modes of two end-member types of oceanic lithosphere are described using a detailed seismicity survey along 390 kilometres of an ultraslow ridge axis, indicating deeper seismicity in amagmatic regions and explaining the uneven crustal production at ultraslow-spreading ridges.

    • Vera Schlindwein
    •  & Florian Schmid

  • Letter |

    Computer models of mantle convection with plate-like behaviour are used to demonstrate that the size–frequency distribution of tectonic plates on Earth is controlled by subduction geometry—the spacing between subducting slabs controls the layout of large plates, and the stresses caused by the bending of trenches break plates into smaller fragments.

    • Claire Mallard
    • , Nicolas Coltice
    •  & Paul J. Tackley

  • Letter |

    Seafloor geodetic data from the Nankai Trough, off southwestern Japan, show that most offshore sites in this earthquake-prone region have high slip-deficit rates, revealing previously unknown locations that could be important for the mitigation of future earthquake- and tsunami-associated disasters.

    • Yusuke Yokota
    • , Tadashi Ishikawa
    •  & Akira Asada

  • Letter |

    A tremor source on the San Andreas Fault produced an unusual sequence of low-frequency earthquakes until it was disrupted by the 2004 Parkfield earthquake; the peculiar recurrence pattern has now been modelled, showing that such slip behaviour occurs when the tremor asperity size is close to the critical nucleation size of earthquakes.

    • Deepa Mele Veedu
    •  & Sylvain Barbot

  • Letter |

    In metre-sized rock specimens, rock friction starts to decrease at a much smaller work rate than in centimetre-sized rock specimens, thus demonstrating that rock friction is scale-dependent.

    • Futoshi Yamashita
    • , Eiichi Fukuyama
    •  & Hironori Kawakata

  • Letter |

    Flat-slab subduction is often proposed to cause deformation of continental crust far from plate boundaries as well as unusual patterns of volcanism; a study of the largest-known flat slab, located in Peru, now shows that the ridge is necessary for the formation and longevity of the flat slab, whereas other contributing factors such as trench retreat and suction alone will not suffice.

    • Sanja Knezevic Antonijevic
    • , Lara S. Wagner
    •  & Cristobal Condori

  • Letter |

    Electrical anisotropy measurements at high temperatures and quasi-hydrostatic pressures on previously deformed olivine plus melt samples show that electrical conductivity is much higher in the direction of deformation; this is confirmed with a layered electrical model of the asthenosphere and lithosphere that reproduces existing field data.

    • Anne Pommier
    • , Kurt Leinenweber
    •  & James A. Tyburczy

  • Letter |

    Observations of the south pole of the Saturnian moon Enceladus revealed large rifts in the terrain that were found to be the sources of the observed jets of water vapour; now it is shown that much of the eruptive activity can be explained by broad, curtain-like eruptions, many of which were probably misinterpreted previously as discrete jets.

    • Joseph N. Spitale
    • , Terry A. Hurford
    •  & Symeon S. Platts

  • Letter |

    Tomographically derived seismic velocities are used to infer the distribution of partial melt below the Lau Basin, revealing an unexpected relationship between the amount of in situ melt and the water content of the magma, indicating that subducted water enhances melt extraction.

    • S. Shawn Wei
    • , Douglas A. Wiens
    •  & James A. Conder

  • Letter |

    Seismic images of the subducted Atlantic slab under northeastern South America and the Alboran slab beneath the Gibraltar arc region show that subducting oceanic plates viscously entrain and remove the bottom of the continental thermal boundary layer from adjacent continental margins, driving surface tectonics and pre-conditioning the margins for further deformation.

    • A. Levander
    • , M. J. Bezada
    •  & M. S. Miller

  • Letter |

    The slow gravitational collapse of early continents could have kick-started transient episodes of plate tectonics until, as the Earth’s interior cooled and oceanic lithosphere became heavier, plate tectonics became self-sustaining.

    • Patrice F. Rey
    • , Nicolas Coltice
    •  & Nicolas Flament

  • Letter |

    Seafloor Global Positioning System observations immediately after the great 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake provide unambiguous evidence for the dominant role of viscoelastic relaxation in short-term postseismic deformation, rather than just afterslip on the fault as is commonly assumed.

    • Tianhaozhe Sun
    • , Kelin Wang
    •  & Yan Hu

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