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Updated: Nov 19, 2025

Kinematic History of a Salient-recess Junction Explored through a Combined Approach of Field Data and Analog Sandbox Modeling
Published on: August 5, 2016
3D anisotropic structure of the Japan subduction zone
Zewei Wang1,2, Dapeng Zhao1
1Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. wangzw.since2016@gmail.com zhao@tohoku.ac.jp.
Abstract:
How mantle materials flow and how intraslab fabrics align in subduction zones are two essential issues for clarifying material recycling between Earth's interior and surface. Investigating seismic anisotropy is one of a few viable technologies that can directly answer these questions. However, the detailed anisotropic structure of subduction zones is still unclear. Under a general hexagonal symmetry anisotropy assumption, we develop a tomographic method to determine a high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) P wave anisotropic model of the Japan subduction zone by inverting 1,184,018 travel time data of local and teleseismic events. As a result, the 3D anisotropic structure in and around the dipping Pacific slab is firstly revealed. Our results show that slab deformation plays an important role in both mantle flow and intraslab fabric, and the widely observed trench-parallel anisotropy in the forearc is related to the intraslab deformation during the outer-rise yielding of the subducting plate.
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