Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Seismology is the study of stress and changes in stress within the Earth and other planetary bodies, particularly earthquakes caused by slip and rupture along faults and by magmatic activity. The field is also concerned with earthquake risks and hazards, as well as the propagation of elastic waves through the surface of the Earth.
A correlation between seismic tomography-derived upper mantle low-density bodies and crustal earthquake clusters in west-central Europe suggests mantle buoyancy forces may be a factor controlling the distribution of intracontinental seismicity
The lithospheric structure controls crustal deformation in the western US. Particularly, its abrupt thickness change along the eastern boundary of the Basin and Range leads to enhanced lithosphere-asthenosphere interaction and localized earthquakes.
Human modifications to the environment can amplify the secondary impacts of earthquakes, such as landslides, liquefaction and tsunamis. This Perspective explores the relationships between environmental modification and earthquake-triggered hazards to identify potential solutions for hazard mitigation.
This study provides seismic evidence for the presence of partial melts along the base of Cascadia’s subducting slab, with implications to lithosphere-asthenosphere decoupling that potentially influences subduction dynamics and earthquake cycles.
Nature Geoscience spoke with Samantha Hansen, a geophysicist at the University of Alabama and Sebastian Rost, a global seismologist at the University of Leeds about the ultralow velocity zones in the lowermost mantle.
Advances in seismological observational and modelling techniques are needed to constrain complex lowermost mantle structures and understand their influence on the global dynamics and evolution of Earth’s interior.
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says that an interstellar meteor showered Earth with particles. At a planetary-science conference this week, researchers begged to differ.
Through the detection of postcursors of shear waves diffracted at the core–mantle boundary, a zone of ultralow seismic velocities has been identified at the base of the mantle beneath the Himalayas. The presence of this zone is probably linked to a subducted slab remnant that is driving mantle flow in the region.