Continental crust rises higher than oceanic crust because it is less dense: It is rich in Si and poor in Mg. However, basalt, which is derived from magma, is denser and has a higher ratio of Mg to Si than the rock that makes up mature continental crust. Cin-Ty Lee et al. argue that chemical weathering alters the composition of continental crust as it ages and helps give it its more buoyant char...

We find that in young and warm subducting plates, earthquakes occur just below the Moho. In older plates, earthquakes occur throughout the subducting oceanic crust, as well as the subducting mantle. We document this behavior in several subduction zones where there are independent constraints on earthquake locations and slab structure, specifically for northern and southern Japan, Alaska, and te...

This study investigated the effects of soil crust development on the underlying soil properties. The field sampling work was conducted in June 2016 in the Hobq Desert in Inner Mongolia, North China. Soil crust samples and 0–6, 6–12, 12–18, 18–24, 24–30 cm deep underlying soil samples were taken from five representative areas of different soil crust development stages. All samples were analyzed ...

Black crust, or gypsum crust, is a surficial accumulation of atmospheric deposits in a gypsum matrix, which is often firmly bonded to the substrate. This condition is ubiquitous on marble buildings, not only threatening the historic fabric, but also leading to aesthetic damage. Laser ablation cleaning has become a popular method to remove black crust from masonry surface. This study focuses on ...

[1] Documenting the mass flux through convergent plate margins is important to the understanding of petrogenesis in arc settings and to the origin of the continental crust, since subduction zones are the only major routes by which material extracted from the mantle can be returned to great depths within the Earth. Despite their significance, there has been a tendency to view subduction zones as...

Calculations of the properties of rotating strange stars with crusts are performed within the framework of general relativity. We employ an equation of state (EOS) of strange quark matter based on the MIT Bag Model with massive strange quarks and lowest order QCD interactions. The crust is described by the BPS equation of state. A significant increase of the stellar radius is found close to the...

We determine the three-dimensional shear wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle in China using Green’’s functions obtained from seismic ambient noise cross-correlation. The data we use are from the China National Seismic Network, global and regional networks and PASSCAL stations in the region. We first acquire cross-correlation seismograms between all possible station pairs. We t...

Introduction: The nature, origin and evolution of Mars' Noachian crust is relatively unknown [1]. Detailed analyses of meteorites point to an early differentiation event for the planet but the only rock definitively of Noachian age is the Martian meteorite; ALH84001, comprised of >95% orthopyroxene [2]. Our understanding of the composition of the Martian crust is derived mostly from Amazonian-a...