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February 14, 2022

UT Graduate Student Research Solves Plate Tectonics Mystery

Painting of Earth's crust with two plates subducting into the Earth. Above each subduction zone are volcanoes and mountains.

The longstanding enigma of how tectonic plates can break Earth’s rock-hard shell may have been solved by a recent graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin who caught the Earth in the act of starting a new tectonic conveyor belt off the coast of New Zealand. The world’s tectonic conveyor belts – called… Continue Reading UT Graduate Student Research Solves Plate Tectonics Mystery

Filed Under: homepage-news, Media Releases, News Tagged With: Brandon Shuck, New Zealand, plate tectonics, SISIE, student research, subduction, subduction initiation, subduction zones

December 6, 2021

Are Deep Fluids Behind the Largest Earthquakes? ‘Not So Fast!’ Says UT Graduate Student

A fishing boat sits among litter strewn streets and damaged buildings..

Sandwiched between tectonic plates are layers of material that show up as thin shadows on seismic tomography, a kind of CT scan of the Earth. For years, scientists assumed the anomalies were signs of highly pressurized water squeezed into densely packed rock and that the fluid acted as a kind of hair-trigger on earthquake faults.… Continue Reading Are Deep Fluids Behind the Largest Earthquakes? ‘Not So Fast!’ Says UT Graduate Student

Filed Under: homepage-news, Media Releases, News Tagged With: Demian Saffer, earth hazards, earthquakes, Peter Miller, seismic anisotropy, seismicity, student research, subduction zones

November 10, 2021

Fate of Sinking Tectonic Plates is Revealed

Layers of rock in a hillside

Our world’s surface is a jumble of jostling tectonic plates, with new ones emerging as others are pulled under. The ongoing cycle keeps our continents in motion and drives life on Earth. But what happens when a plate disappears into the planet’s interior? The question has long puzzled scientists because conventional wisdom said that sinking… Continue Reading Fate of Sinking Tectonic Plates is Revealed

Filed Under: homepage-news, Media Releases, News Tagged With: computational geoscience, earthquakes, Oden Institute, plate tectonics, slab segmentation, slabs, strong plates weak slabs, subduction, subduction zones, Thorsten Becker

October 8, 2015

Dispatch from the Solomon Islands

Research Associate Jake Walter writes home about his field work. Continue Reading Dispatch from the Solomon Islands

Filed Under: News, tectonophysics-slideshow Tagged With: field work, GPS, seismometers, Solomon Islands, subduction zones, Tectonics

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