Slow slip near the trench at the Hikurangi subduction zone, New Zealand

Abstract

Applying pressure to plate tectonics The full range of deformation behavior of subduction zone faults that are responsible for great earthquakes and tsunamis is now clearer. Wallace et al. observed the heave of the ocean floor near the Hikurangi trench, off the east coast of New Zealand, with a network of absolute pressure gauges (see the Perspective by Tréhu). The gauges sit on the ocean floor and detect changes in pressure generated from slow-slip deformation events. Detailed geodetic observation of deformation events will finally clarify the role that such aseismic events play at major plate boundaries. Science , this issue p. 701 ; see also p. 654