Ruff, L.J., 1992. Asperity distributions and large earthquake occurrence in subduction zones. In: T. Mikumo, K. Aki, M. Ohnaka, L.J. Ruff and P.K.P. Spudich (Editors), Earthquake Source Physics and Earthquake Precursors. Tectonophysics. 211: 61-83. Plate tectonics and the seismic gap hypothesis provide the framework for long-term earthquake forecasting of plate boundary earthquakes. Unfortunate...

Combined analysis of high-resolution seismic images of the Alaska and Cascadia subduction zones reveals where metamorphic fl uids are released. Both images show the subducted oceanic crust as a dipping low-velocity layer with a clear termination depth. However, in Alaska the crust is thicker (15–20 km compared to 8 km) and terminates at greater depth (120 km compared to 40 km) than in Cascadia....

Recent geochemical studies of uranium-thorium series disequilibrium in rocks from subduction zones require magmas to be transported through the mantle from just above the subducting slab to the surface in as little as approximately 30,000 years. We present a series of laboratory experiments that investigate the characteristic time scales and flow patterns of the diapiric upwelling model of subd...

[1] Oceanic lithosphere undergoes permanent deformation during subduction once the stresses exceed the elastic limit. Departures from elastic behavior occur by brittle failure in the shallow lithosphere and by a combination of lowand high-temperature creep at greater depths. We combine laboratory-based rheological models with estimates of slab shape from earthquake hypocenters to quantify the b...

Subducting lithospheric plates are the cool, downwelling limbs of mantle convection and the negative buoyancy of subducting slabs (slab pull) drives plate tectonics [Forsyth and Uyeda, 1975]. Subduction zones are regions of intense earthquake activity, explosive volcanism, and complex mass transfer between the crust, mantle, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. In this contribution, I present subductio...

Plate-boundary fault rupture during the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman subduction earthquake extended closer to the trench than expected, increasing earthquake and tsunami size. International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 362 sampled incoming sediments offshore northern Sumatra, revealing recent release of fresh water within the deep sediments. Thermal modeling links this freshening to amorphous sil...

One view of the metamorphic subduction system supposes that coupled deformation and prograde/metasomatic reaction between the chemically enriched slab and the depleted mantle wedge promotes the formation of complexly hybridized lithologies along the slab/mantle interface. This type of model is based upon direct observations of the structure and petrology of high-P/T metamorphic complexes (e.g.,...

[1] On 23 June 2001, a Mw = 8.4 underthrusting earthquake occurred in the southern Peru subduction zone, followed by several large aftershocks, including 26 June (Mw = 6.7) and 7 July (Mw = 7.5). Broadband analyses of seismic data for the largest of these earthquakes show southeastward rupture of 180 km along the portion of the subduction zone previously ruptured in 1868 (Mw 8.8–9). Moment rele...