Transects of the submersible Alvin across rock outcrops in the Oregon subduction zone have furnished information on the structural and stratigraphic framework of this accretionary complex. Communities of clams and tube worms, and authigenic carbonate mineral precipitates, are associated with venting sites of cool fluids located on a fault-bend anticline at a water depth of 2036 meters. The dist...

Tsunami is a system of ocean gravity waves formed as a result of large-scale disturbance of the sea floor that occurs in a relatively short duration of time. The Indian Ocean is likely to be affected by tsunamis generated mainly by earthquakes from the two potential source regions, the Andaman-Nicobar-Sumatra Island Arc and the Makran Subduction Zone. A state-of-the-art warning centre has been ...

The formation and exhumation of high and ultrahigh-pressure, (U)HP, rocks of crustal origin appears to be ubiquitous during Phanerozoic plate subduction and continental collision events. Exhumation of (U)HP material has been shown in some orogens to have occurred only once, during a single short-lived event; in other cases exhumation appears to have occurred multiple discrete times or during a ...

The mantle wedge of a subduction zone is characterized by low seismic velocities and high attenuation, indicative of temperatures approaching the solidus and the possible presence of melt and volatiles. Tomographic images show a low velocity region above the slab extending from 150 km depth up to the volcanic front. The low velocities result at least partially from volatiles fluxed off the slab...

In the Makran area, a wide accretionary wedge is originated by north-dipping subduction of Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere. The rear represented North Domain that consists an imbricate stack tectonic units derived from closure basin. This basin opened southward Eurasia continental margin during Early Cretaceous. Bajgan Complex interpreted as Paleozoic or older metamorphic basement representing ...

[1] Interseismic GPS data along the Hualien-Suao coast (NE Taiwan) shows a pattern of strain accumulation that is consistent with a potential future large shallow earthquake along the southernmost Ryukyu subduction zone. The measured shortening rate parallel to the Ryukyu Trench is 80 mm/yr, about twice of the shortening rate perpendicular to the Ryukyu Trench. We invert for slip-deficit rates ...

Great earthquakes, the few largest earthquakes that account for most of the Earth’s seismic energy release, have occurred at only a few subduction zones around the world. Strong locking, or ‘seismic coupling’, of the interface between plates at certain subduction zones is often invoked to explain these great earthquakes. Although past studies have correlated strong seismic coupling with a compr...

We investigate global variations in the pattern of aftershock area expansion associated with large subduction zone earthquakes. The expansion of aftershock areas with time is relatively small in the subduction zones of Alaska, the Aleutians, Mexico, and parts of the Kuriles and South America. These subduction zones are interpreted to be characterized by moderate to strong interplate coupling. I...