Past seismic slip-to-the-trench recorded in Central America megathrust
- Journal:
- Nature Geoscience
- Published:
- DOI:
- 10.1038/s41561-017-0013-4
- Affiliations:
- 8
- Authors:
- 7
Research Highlight
Predicting the risk of tsunami from seafloor geology
© Yoshinori Kuwahara/Moment/Getty
Geological
features on the seafloor that contributed to Japan’s devastating 2011 Tōhoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami
have also been found in a fault line that runs along the eastern coastline of
North, Central and South America.
An
international team of researchers, including some from the University of
Tsukuba, noted that previous drilling research in the Japan Trench had revealed
a clay-rich seafloor that helped translate the earthquake’s energy into the
huge tsunami that struck Japan’s eastern coast.
With
this knowledge, they looked at drilling samples from the seafloor off
southeastern Costa Rica, where several continental plates meet. Their research
suggests that the conditions in the seafloor in that location are also likely
to increase the risk of tsunami in the event of a tectonic shift.
The
findings could help identify other coastal fault lines around the world that
pose a higher risk of tsunami.
References
- Nature Geoscience 10, 935–940 (2017). doi: 10.1038/s41561-017-0013-4