I recently participated in a three-week-long, National Science Foundation-funded research cruise to the Mariana Trench. Our ...

The Earth's surface is constantly reshaped by the movement of tectonic plates, which make up the continental crust on which ...

However, there is no evidence of plate subduction—a geological process in which one tectonic plate is forced beneath another as they converge at a plate boundary—anywhere near this region.

Two enormous continent-sized "islands" found buried deep inside the Earth's mantle are challenging our ideas about our planet ...

Crustal earthquakes, whose magnitude may exceed 7 in some cases, occur within the overriding North America plate as it deforms in response to the subduction process. The 1946 magnitude 7.3 event that ...

The modern understanding of the plate tectonic cycle predicts that remnants of submerged plates will be found near subduction zones. However, a new high-resolution model shows that these remnants ...

Finally, using their geodynamic mantle-flow model, they simulated the full extent of the subduction process and validated the ...

Researchers found that an inactive subduction zone under the Strait of Gibraltar may begin migrating into the Atlantic Ocean, commencing the shrinking process. The zone also brings a higher risk ...

Aside from the danger they pose, such earthquakes disrupt the slow, long-term changes occurring at subduction zones.The cycle of sudden earthquakes and slow plate movement makes it difficult for ...