Quake split a tectonic plate in two, and geologists are shaken

[Judi Lynn]

Robin George Andrews 2 hrs ago

On September 7, 2017, a magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck southern Mexico, killing dozens and injuring hundreds. While earthquakes are common enough in the region, this powerful event wasn’t any run-of-the-mill tremor.

That’s because part of the roughly 37-mile-thick tectonic plate responsible for the quake completely split apart, as revealed by a new study in Nature Geoscience. This event took place in a matter of tens of seconds, and it coincided with a gargantuan release of energy.

“If you think of it as a huge slab of glass, this rupture made a big, gaping crack,” says lead author Diego Melgar, an assistant professor of earthquake seismology at the University of Oregon. “All indications are that it has broken through the entire width of the thing.”

Such colossal fragmentation events have been observed before in a handful of places around the world, and all these epic earthquakes have one thing in common: No one really knows how they happen. This information gap matters, because huge populations from the western seaboard of the Americas to the eastern shores of Japan could be threatened by these enigmatic earthquakes.

More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/quake-split-a-tectonic-plate-in-two-and-geologists-are-shaken/ar-BBOP3xQ?li=BBnb7Kz

[denbot]

1. Rutt-Rho Shaggy

In my day we had no idea that an earthquake could be the result of the breach of an entire cratonic plate. This is soooo not good for us cockroach like species.

[Auggie]

2. Yeah, but it's still pretty cool ...

business as usual for Earth.

[AllaN01Bear]

3. eep

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