Science News, December 16th, 1989
Birth of a subduction zone
A massive earthquake that struck the seafloor south of New Zealand in May appears to have signaled the very early stages of subduction there -- the same process that long ago created deep ocean trenches around the Pacific. Subduction occurs when two crustal plates collide and one dives below the other.
The magnitude 8.2 shock, the world's largest in 12 years (SN: 6/3/89, p.340), occurred at the Macquarie ridge, a chain of mountains and troughs that runs south from New Zealand and forms the boundary between the Pacific and Australian plates. This and other local r...
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