subduction | Highly Allochthonous

Tag Archives: subduction

A new recipe for Large Igneous Provinces: just add BIF, then wait a couple of hundred million years

Posted on May 26, 2023 by Chris Rowan

Here’s a new paper that proposes the biggest of big ideas: a 240 million year causal chain that runs from the Earth’s surface, to the core mantle boundary, and back again! Here’s how it supposedly goes: 1. Banded iron deposits … Continue reading →

Categories: deep time, geology, past worlds, volcanoes

Two reflections on the largest earthquake yet recorded, 60 years later.

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Chris Rowan

It has been 60 years since a magnitude 9.5 earthquake struck the Chilean coast near Valdivia. The stats for this earthquake remain pretty mind-blowing even today. It is still the largest earthquake ever recorded – over 20% of the Earth’s seismic energy … Continue reading →

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, tectonics

At subduction zones, feeding a complicated plate means you get complicated earthquake behaviour out

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Chris Rowan

What drives the occurrence of slow-slip events on subduction zones: “earthquakes”: that involve strain release over days and weeks rather than seconds? A new paper…doesn’t really answer that question, but it shows why it’s so complicated to answer. The study uses … Continue reading →

Categories: earthquakes, paper reviews, tectonics