TECTONICS

News About Tectonic Forces

504 articles

Mapping downgoing plate topography of the 2005 Sumatra earthquake
Dec 17, 2015 (SPX)
New geophysical data show that fault slip during the March 2005 magnitude 8.7 (Mw) earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia (also referred t...
Twin studies provide first explanations for boundary within Earth's mantle
Dec 15, 2015 (SPX)
Earth's mantle, the large zone of slow-flowing rock that lies between the crust and the planet's core, powers every earthquake and volcanic eruption on the plan...
Stanford scientists develop 'Shazam for earthquakes'
Dec 10, 2015 (SPX)
An algorithm inspired by a popular song-matching app is helping Stanford scientists find previously overlooked earthquakes in large databases of ground motion m...
Maximum observed earthquake magnitudes along continental transform faults
Dec 10, 2015 (SPX)
Continental transform faults evolve when two plates slide along each other. The most prominent examples are the San Andreas Fault in California and the North An...
How the Earth's Pacific plates collapsed
Nov 30, 2015 (SPX)
Scientists drilling into the ocean floor have for the first time found out what happens when one tectonic plate first gets pushed under another. The internation...
Stretchy slabs found in the deep Earth
Nov 30, 2015 (SPX)
A new study suggests that the common belief that the Earth's rigid tectonic plates stay strong when they slide under another plate, known as subduction, may not...
Volcanic rocks hold clues to Earth's interior
Nov 27, 2015 (SPX)
The journey for volcanic rocks found on many volcanic islands began deep within the Earth. Brought to the Earth's surface in eruptions of deep volcanic material...
When did the Andes mountains form
Nov 25, 2015 (SPX)
The Andes have been a mountain chain for much longer than previously thought, new research from the University of Bristol, UK suggests. The Andes were formed by...
How did plate tectonics start on Earth
Nov 18, 2015 (SPX)
Our planet Earth is the only planet in the Solar System that possesses Plate Tectonics. The Earth's surface is in a constant state of change; the tectonic plate...
Titan takes on the big one
Nov 18, 2015 (SPX)
The San Andreas Fault system, which runs almost the entire length of California, is prone to shaking, causing about 10,000 minor earthquakes each year just in t...
Plate tectonics thanks to plumes
Nov 18, 2015 (SPX)
"Knowing what a chicken looks like and what all the chickens before it looked like doesn't help us to understand the egg," says Taras Gerya. The ETH Professor o...
Climate change is moving mountains, research says
Nov 10, 2015 (SPX)
For millions of years global climate change has altered the structure and internal movement of mountain ranges, but the resulting glacial development and erosio...
Microplate discovery dates birth of Himalayas
Nov 10, 2015 (SPX)
An international team of scientists has discovered the first oceanic microplate in the Indian Ocean - helping identify when the initial collision between India ...
Nepal earthquake was less intense than feared
Oct 29, 2015 (SPX)
The April 2015 Gorkha earthquake that struck Nepal produced less damage and weaker shaking than might be expected from a magnitude 7.8 quake in the area, accord...
Triggered earthquakes give insight into changes below Earth's surface
Oct 21, 2015 (SPX)
It is well known that an earthquake in one part of the world can trigger others thousands of kilometers away. But in a paper published in the journal Science Ad...
Scientists simulate Earth's middle crust to understand earthquakes
Oct 06, 2015 (SPX)
Researchers have for the first time been able to measure a material's resistance to fracturing from various types of tectonic motions in the Earth's middle crus...
Earthquake rupture halted by seamounts
Oct 06, 2015 (SPX)
Chile is one of the countries that is most at risk from damaging earthquakes. Therefore, no one was caught by surprise when a series of tremors struck the area ...
Chinese continental shelf collided with Eurasia 100M years ago
Sep 23, 2015 (SPX)
It has been axiomatically accepted that the basement of a continental shelf is the offshore extension and geologically part of the same continental lithosphere....
World's longest continental volcano track found in Australia
Sep 16, 2015 (SPX)
Scientists have discovered the world's longest known chain of continental volcanoes, running 2,000 kilometres across Australia, from the Whitsundays in North Qu...
Megathrust quake faults weaker and less stressed than thought
Sep 15, 2015 (SPX)
Some of the inner workings of Earth's subduction zones and their "megathrust" faults are revealed in a paper published in the journal Science. U.S. Geological S...
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