Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate dives underneath another, drive the world’s most devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. How do these danger zones come to be? A study in Geology presents ...

(a) Geological units and earthquake distribution of an oceanic subduction zone. The orange shadow beneath the volcanic arc represents partially molten areas and magma channels. (b) Thermal structure ...

Our planet's lithosphere is broken into several tectonic plates. Their configuration is ever-shifting, as supercontinents are assembled and broken up, and oceans form, grow, and then start to close in ...

A hidden chunk of an ancient tectonic plate is stuck to the Pacific Ocean floor and sliding under North America, complicating earthquake risk at the Cascadia subduction zone.

One of the main achievements in the Earth science is the development of plate tectonics theory in the 20 th century. It successfully explains the generation and extinction of oceanic plate from ...

Large subduction-zone earthquakes leave scars on the continental slope in the deep sea.

South of New Zealand in the Tasman Sea is a stretch of stormy ocean where the waves regularly swell 20 feet (6 meters) or more and the winds blow at 30 mph (48 km/h) on a good day. Deep below these ...

Researchers used a novel finite-fault inversion method with seismometer data from around the world to investigate a deep intraslab earthquake that occurred on March 4, 2021, off the northeastern tip ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Understanding the origins of the Ring of Fire, the most seismically active place on Earth, is famously difficult as geologic evidence is destroyed in ...