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Earthquakes, Deep

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Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

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Definition of the Subject

Deep earthquakes (DEQ) are earthquakes with focal depths between 60 and 700 km. They are of historical importance because their geographical pattern of occurrence provided critical information that helped confirm the theory of plate tectonics. Analyzing DEQ continues to be important because it provides important information about the structural, thermodynamic, compositional, and mechanical properties of the Earth’s deep interior. DEQ are mechanically puzzling because they occur under conditions where temperatures and pressures are too high to permit ordinary brittle fracture, the physical mechanism responsible for shallow earthquakes.

Introduction

In the early twentieth century, the depth of ordinary earthquakes was an open question until observational studies in Japan (Wadati 1928) and elsewhere proved that focal depths ranged from the surface to almost 700 km. Scientists since have puzzled about the physical mechanism responsible for DEQ. Seismological...

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Abbreviations

Brittle fracture:

A mode of material failure whereby the application of stress causes the formation of tiny cracks which proliferate and link up until the material fails catastrophically.

Deep earthquake:

Generally, an earthquake with a focal depth exceeding 60 km; strictly, an earthquake with a focal depth exceeding 300 km. In this strict sense, earthquakes with focal depths between 60 and 300 km are called intermediate earthquakes.

Ductile flow:

A mode of material failure whereby the application of stress causes continuous slip between grain boundaries distributed throughout the material, so that the material changes shape but does not break or fail catastrophically.

Focal mechanism:

The radiation pattern of seismic waves leaving the source region of an earthquake. This is usually expressed graphically by depicting a sphere surrounding the source region, with dark-colored regions showing directions where P-wave first motions are away from the center and light-colored regions towards the center.

Metastable olivine:

Because low temperatures may inhibit phase transformations, olivine can move downward across the olivine-spinel phase boundary without transforming, much like super-cooled water. When the metastable olivine transforms to spinel at greater depths, it may produce a spontaneous release of heat and/or seismic energy.

Moment magnitude MW :

A measure of earthquake size determined from its scalar moment Mo. Mo is measured from low-frequency properties of earthquake seismograms and also the source-to-station distance and is proportional to (average slip) X (area) of the fault that ruptured and radiated seismic energy. MW and Mo are useful statistics because they relate simply to fundamental properties of the earthquake fault, a characteristic not shared by other common measures of earthquake size.

Positive feedback:

For phase transformations: If a phase transformation releases heat, the resulting increase in temperature will increase the transformation rate. Thus, a small increase in temperature can cause the transformation to take place quickly over an extended area.

Solid-solid phase transition:

A phase transformation whereby a mineral transforms to different mineral having a different molecular structure. For example, the olivine-to-spinel transition occurs when SiO4 anions transform from hexagonal close packing to cubic close packing.

Subduction zone:

Regions where tectonic plates converge and one plate plunges beneath the other (i.e., subducts) into the Earth’s interior. Common features in subduction zones include a deep-ocean trench adjacent to a long linear chain of volcanoes overlying a zone where deep earthquakes occur.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, 10100 Burnet Rd (R2200), Austin, TX, 78758-4445, USA

    Cliff Frohlich

  2. School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, No.29 Xue Yuan Rd Hai dian District, Beijing, 10083, China

    Wei Gan

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  1. Cliff Frohlich
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Correspondence to Cliff Frohlich .

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  1. Ramtech Ltd., Larkspur, California, USA

    Robert A. Meyers

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Frohlich, C., Gan, W. (2014). Earthquakes, Deep. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_594-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_594-1

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