Nick Wu 2/20/13

In the article Great-Earthquake Hot Spots Pinpointed, taken from a journal of the European Geosciences Union, the cause of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and other destructive earthquakes is finally revealed. While it has long been known that the largest earthquakes occur at subduction zones, the places where oceanic crust slips under continental crust, it was not until recently when scientists found out where exactly in the subduction areas strong earthquakes are most likely to happen. The answer lies in fracture zones, which are cuts on the seafloor. When sea-floor spreading causes these cuts to go into the subduction areas is when the largest earthquakes are most likely to occur. According to a researcher from the University of Sydney in Australia, Dietmar Mller, "We find that 87% of the 15 largest (8.6 magnitude or higher) and half of the 50 largest (8.4 magnitude or higher) earthquakes of the past century are associated with intersection regions between oceanic fracture zones and subduction zones." He goes on to explain that this is not simply by chance, because if it was, then only about of large earthquakes would happen in these special areas. Another researcher who was also involved in this study, Thomas Landgrebe, describes the method of looking for data as being commonly used to find a few specific items which are expected to be most appealing to an Internet user. Instead, we use it to find which tectonic environment is most suitable for generating great earthquakes." He does not actually say the method which was used for his research, though. However, the information gained from this research is very useful, since it allows scientists to see where the next giant earthquake may occur.

This article is closely related to the material we recently learned, since it deals with the movement of tectonic plates. In this case, subduction was the focus of the article, as it is in subduction areas where the largest earthquakes occur. It also brings up a new idea. While in class we dealt with normal plates with no irregularities, this article focused more on irregularities in the sea floor, like the fracture zones, and how it affects the chances a strong earthquakes occurring. Also, in class, when we dealt with mid-ocean ridges, we discussed its forming from plates converging at convergent boundaries. This article also explains how the two halves of a mid-ocean ridge can slide back and forth like a transform boundary, which is what creates fracture zones. I believe that this new scientific discovery may save lives in the future, since it could help people prepare for earthquakes before they happen. The 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake was unexpected since it had no record of bad earthquakes over the past century. With the newly revealed idea that fracture zones meeting with subduction zones could help more dangerous earthquakes to be revealed by checking the nearby subduction zones. This would be useful because areas in danger of being effected by an earthquake could take safety precautions. I am not sure why the researchers are confused by how fracture zones cause larger earthquakes. The article states that the physical properties of fracture zones are what cause big earthquakes to occur. To me, it seems self-evident that irregularities in the seafloor would cause irregularities to occur during the process of subduction, ultimately resulting in an earthquake.