Elements of a newly discovered process in plate tectonics include a mass (rock slab weight), a pulley (trench), a dashpot (microcontinent), and a string (oceanic plate) that connects these elements to ...

This study is led by Prof. Zhong-Hai Li (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences). The present solid Earth is actually active, with new plates generating in the mid-ocean ridges and some old plates ...

Newly-released research led by the University of Washington (UW) showed that a feature scientists hypothesized was present along the Cascadia Subduction Zone is missing in places. What does that mean ...

A budding subduction zone offshore of Spain heralds the start of a new cycle that will one day pull the Atlantic Ocean seafloor into the bowels of the Earth, a new study suggests. Understanding how ...

A new study, resorting to computational models, predicts that a subduction zone currently below the Gibraltar Strait will propagate further inside the Atlantic and contribute to forming an Atlantic ...

Eastern Indonesia hosts one of the most complex and fascinating tectonic systems on the planet. Palaeogeographical reconstructions indicate that subduction and deformation of a single slab of oceanic ...

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 ...

Figure 2: Conceptual model of flat slab flat slab subduction in a mantle reference frame. Figure 6: Absolute plate motions and trench retreat estimates. Figure 7: Conceptual model of the formation of ...

A subduction zone occurs when two of the Earth's tectonic plates meet and one moves beneath the other. As the bottom plate continues, it moves downward and eventually, pressure and heat cause the ...

On Jan. 26, 1700, one of the largest earthquakes in human history struck off the West Coast of the United States, causing a tsunami and significant changes to the coastline from southern British ...

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 ...