Earthquakes and volcanoes in subduction zones may cause great human catastrophe. Previous studies on subduction zone structure and causal mechanisms of giant megathrust earthquakes (M ≥ 9.0) have ...

Recently, a research team led by Prof. DAI Liqun from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), has revealed that the mantle sources of Cenozoic ...

When a slab slides beneath an overriding plate in a subduction zone, the slab takes on a property called anisotropy, meaning ...

A careful analysis of the complex boundary where four tectonic plates meet reveals that one of the slabs is tearing itself ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A popular view among geophysicists is that large amounts of water are carried from the oceans to the deep mantle in “subduction zones,” which are boundaries where the Earth’s ...

Geophysicists can use a new model to explain the behavior of a tectonic plate sinking into a subduction zone in the Earth's mantle: the plate becomes weak and thus more deformable when mineral grains ...

Plate tectonics has shaped the Earth’s surface for billions of years: Continents and oceanic crust have pushed and pulled on each other, continually rearranging the planet’s façade. As two massive ...

ANN ARBOR—As anyone with a smattering of geological knowledge knows, Earth’s crust is made up of plates that creep over the planet’s surface at a rate of several inches per year. But why do they move ...

Earth's thin crust softens considerably when it dives down into the Earth attached to a tectonic plate. That is demonstrated by X-ray studies carried out on a mineral which occurs in large quantities ...