tectonics

Orphaning: Discovering New Subduction Processes

Antoniette Greta Grima and edited by Kiran Chotalia November 24, 2021

Figure 1: P-Wave tomography by Obayashi et al. (2013) and Fukao & Obayashi (2013) for Tonga. Note the deflected slab at 660 km depth underlain by deeper slab material, possibly orphan slabs.

Science is all about discovering new things. But how do we make these discoveries, adding to the ever growing pantheon of knowledge? This week, we sit with one of our editors Antoniette Greta Grima, a Postdoctoral Fellow from the University of Texas at Austin, to understand what it takes to discover a new slab process. Thanks for sitting down with us this week! First things first, which subductio ...[Read More]

The short story of my PhD

Ömer F. Bodur and edited by Anna Gülcher May 3, 2021

PhD students’ struggles are alike; each succeed in their own way[1] It was a Friday morning, and nearly 3 years had passed since I arrived at Sydney. This meant, I only had one month left to submit my thesis! No sooner had I entered my office than a feeling of anxiety had found me. I had no time to dig deep into my own thoughts to discover what was happening, although it was obvious. Instead, I re ...[Read More]

The boundaries of plate modelling

Jean-Christophe Wrobel-Daveau, Graeme Nicoll and edited by Lucía Pérez-Díaz March 31, 2021

The 1977 World Ocean Floor Map created by Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp

This weeks post is all about the importance of boundaries. Plate boundaries that is. Jean-Christophe Wrobel-Daveau and Graeme Nicoll tell us why we should care where plate boundaries are and how they evolve through time, when attempting to reconstruct past plate motions. Global plate tectonic models are an incredible way to synthesise geological knowledge to gain both direct and indirect insight i ...[Read More]

Modelling the deformation in the Indian plate and the India-Eurasia collision zone

Srishti Singh and edited by Jyotirmoy Paul March 24, 2021

Mighty Himalayas at the India-Eurasia collision zone, Kashmir. photo @GeophyJo

A complete fluid dynamical approach of modeling the Earth’s deformation can not provide a complete picture due to presence of rigid lithospheric plates. In this week’s news and views, Srishti Singh, scientist at National Geophysical Research Institute, India, explains how coupled models of lithosphere dynamics and mantle convection are developed. The ongoing collision of the Indian plate wi ...[Read More]