Science, Vol.280, No.5367, 1245-1249, 1998
Viscosity of oceanic asthenosphere inferred from remote triggering of earthquakes
A sequence of large interplate earthquakes from 1952 to 1965 along the Aleutian are and Kurile-Kamchatka trench released accumulated stresses along nearly the entire northern portion of the Pacific Plate boundary. The postseismic stress evolution across the northern Pacific and Arctic basins, calculated from a viscoelastic coupling model with an asthenospheric viscosity of 5 x 10(17) pascal seconds, is consistent with triggering of oceanic intraplate earthquakes, temporal patterns in seismicity at remote plate boundaries, and space-based geodetic measurements of anomalous velocity over an area 7000 by 7000 kilometers square during the 30-year period after the sequence.
Keywords:CURRENT PLATE MOTIONS;UPPER-MANTLE;SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA;ISLANDS EARTHQUAKE;RUPTURE PROCESS;RECURRENCE INTERVALS;GREAT EARTHQUAKES;STRESS DIFFUSION;HEAT-FLOW;JAPAN