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That action destroys evidence of the processes that occur at such tectonic interfaces, so the team’s geologic find, in the Apennines of north central Italy, is especially rare. 19).Ībout half of the world’s subduction zones, which typically lie in deep water far offshore, are considered erosive margins, where the ocean-crust plate is scouring the front edge of the overriding continental plate, says Francesca Remitti, a geologist at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy. When friction between the moving plates locks them in place, immense stresses build up along these subduction zones-stresses that can, when released, trigger great earthquakes and devastating tsunamis ( SN: 1/8/05, p. When a tectonic plate made of ocean crust and one formed of relatively light continental rocks collide, the continental plate typically overrides the oceanic plate, forcing it back down into Earth’s mantle. The European plate lies above the area pictured. The dotted orange line depicts the boundary between the Adriatic plate and the material trapped in the subduction zone arrows indicate ancient plate motions. Now preserved high in the mountains of Italy, the Adriatic tectonic plate was subducting beneath the European plate millions of years ago. The first-of-its-kind discovery provides new clues about ancient seismic activity along this interface between tectonic plates, and also insight into what may be happening along many quake-prone subduction zones today. A 200-kilometer-long, 500-meter-thick layer of rocks now lying high in the mountains of Italy is recognized as the remains of an erosive subduction zone that was active under the sea millions of years ago, scientists say.
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