The deformation at well-defined, narrow plate boundaries depends on the relative plate motion, but how the deformation takes place within a distributed plate boundary zone remains a conundrum. This was confirmed by the seismological analyses of the 2012 great Wharton Basin earthquakes [moment magnitude (Mw) 8.6], which suggested the rupture of several faults at high angles to one another. Using...

Regional variation is an integral part of Japanese historical demography. At least three different patterns of population and family are suggested to have coexisted in three geographic boundaries in early modern Japan: northeast, central, and southeast. However, the evidence for the three patterns are either based on macro level studies or on micro level studies of a few villages in each region...

Earth is the only terrestrial planet in our solar system where an oceanic plate subducts beneath an overriding plate. Although the initiation of plate subduction requires extremely weak boundaries between strong plates, the way in which oceanic mantle rheologically weakens remains unknown. Here we show that shear-enhanced hydration reactions contribute to the generation and maintenance of weak ...

Transform faults at mid-ocean ridges--one of the most striking, yet enigmatic features of terrestrial plate tectonics--are considered to be the inherited product of preexisting fault structures. Ridge offsets along these faults therefore should remain constant with time. Here, numerical models suggest that transform faults are actively developing and result from dynamical instability of constru...

Presented here are the first three-dimensional simulations of mantle convection to display self-consistently-generated plate tectonic-like behavior which is continuous in space and time. Plate behavior arises through a reasonable material description of silicate deformation, with a simple yield stress being sufficient to give first-order plate-like behavior. Toroidal:poloidal ratios are within ...

In this paper, the general plane problem for an infinite strip containing multiple cracks perpendicular to its boundaries is considered. The problem is reduced to a system of singular integral equations. Two specific problems of practical interest are then studied in detail. The first is the investigation of the interaction effect of multiple edge cracks in a plate or beam under tension or bend...

Most of Earth’s volcanism occurs at tectonic plate boundaries associated with subduction or rifting processes. The mantle plume hypothesis is an important supplement to tectonics for explaining some high-volume intraplate volcanic fields. However, many magmatic provinces occur as low-volume, monogenetic basaltic-suite fields that are neither plate-boundary processes nor attributable plumes, and...

Plate kinematic reconstructions available for the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous eastward drift and counterclockwise rotation of Iberian plate imply a major left-lateral motion Iberia with respect to Eurasia. According most authors, this displacement has been accommodated along transform North Pyrenean Zone. However, no relevant field evidence exists proposed >400 km horizontal Fault. Several P...