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Science 29 October 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5441, pp. 909 - 910
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5441.909
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Perspectives

Also see the archival list of Science's Compass: Enhanced Perspectives

GEOPHYSICS:
Enhanced: Deep Earthquakes in Real Slabs

Seth A. Stein and David C. Rubie

Deep earthquakes shouldn't happen, yet they do. At depths greater than about 50 kilometers, rock begins to flow rather than fracture, and fracture is the phenomenon associated with seismic activity. In their Perspective, Stein and Rubie discusses the highlights of a recent conference on subduction, the geological process whereby one lithospheric plate is pushed under another. Deep earthquakes can take place in subducting slabs owing to the complex phase transformations that occur as minerals are heated and put under pressure as they are pushed deeper. Conference participants debated current models of deep seismic activity and their limitations.

S. Stein is in the Department of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail: seth{at}earth.nwu.edu. D. Rubie is at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany. E-mail: dave.rubie{at}uni-bayreuth.de.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Ringwoodite lamellae in olivine: Clues to olivine-ringwoodite phase transition mechanisms in shocked meteorites and subducting slabs.
M. Chen, A. E. Goresy, and P. Gillet (2004)
PNAS 101, 15033-15037
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