Unusual Faulting (IMAGE)
Caption
Japan's risk of giant tsunamis may have grown when the angle of a down-going slab of ocean crust declined. Top: ocean crust (right) slides under continental crust at a steep angle, causing faulting (red lines) in seafloor sediments piled up behind. Bottom: as the angle shallows, stress is transferred to sediments piled onto the continental crust, and faults develop there. Blue dots indicate resulting earthquakes. At left in both images, the change in angle also shifts the region where magma fueling volcanoes is generated, pushing eruptions further inland.
Credit
Adapted from Oryan and Buck, <em>Nature Geoscience</em> 2020
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