Fingerprinting Slow Earthquakes

CarnegieScience writes "The most powerful earthquakes happen at the junction of two converging tectonic plates, where one plate is sliding (or subducting) beneath the other. Now a team of researchers, led by Teh-Ru Alex Song of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, has found that an anomalous layer at the top of a subducting plate coincides with the locations of slow earthquakes and non-volcanic tremors. The presence of such a layer in similar settings elsewhere could point to other regions of slow quakes."

Comments

Re:Paging all geologists

[b0ttle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_earthquake

Hawaii, Where All the Action Is

[indiejade]

The Pacific Ocean is geologically much more new and deeper than the Atlantic side, which has a much more gradual slope on the continental shelf / continental slope / continental rise subduction system between continents. So we know the Atlantic is older.

Another fun (dynamic) map showing some actual geologic and volcanic activity:

http://oss.zentu.net/?q=node/118

Re:Hawaii, Where All the Action Is

[dragonjujotu]

I'm confused, did I learn the wrong thing from all those old science clips that show Pangaea breaking apart and the Atlantic ocean forms as the Americas separate from Europe/Africa?

Re:Hawaii, Where All the Action Is

[Red Flayer]

No, you are right.

The reason the Pacific Ocean floor is newer is because it's still actively growing quickly as the surrounding plates move away. So while the Atlantic is newer than the Pacific, the *floor* of the Pacific is generally newer than the floor of the Atlantic.

So, in a sense, the parent was correct, but only in a limited sense.

Thin end of the wedge

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a bad idea.

Soon enough they will start fingerprinting the smart earthquakes. And before long they will be swabbing the mouths of the earthquakes looking for DNA.