Outer trench swell
The outer trench swell, outer trench high, or outer rise is a subtle
Characteristics
Typically, the gravity field over the outer swell is about 50 mGal (0.5 mm/s²) higher than expected from isostasy, while gravity over the trench is about 200 mGal (2 mm/s²) less than that expected from isostatic considerations.
The bending of the plate is associated with tension in the upper 20 km, and shallow earthquakes, caused by tensional failure induced by the downward bending of the oceanic plate are common; about 20 extensional outer rise earthquakes with magnitude 5 or greater occur annually. Most tension axes are perpendicular to the trench, independent of the direction of relative motion between the two plates, indicating that failure is controlled by bending stresses in the plate. Plate bending also causes deeper (down to 50 km) earthquakes due to compression.
The
Faulting of the downgoing plate results in a horst and graben structure that allows sediment that reaches the trench to be deposited in graben and carried downward. This faulting also breaks up seamounts as they approach the trench. The principal mechanism of frontal erosion may reflect combined effects of seamount tunneling, mass wasting and transport to the trench, deposition in a graben on the downgoing plate, and descent into the mantle.
Outer trench swells are geoscientific frontiers and much remains to be learned about them. Recent
References
- Hirano, N., Takahashi, E., Yamamoto, J., Abe, N., Ingle, S.P., Kaneoka, I., Hirata, T., Kimura, J.-I., Ishii, T., Ogawa, Y., Machida, S., and Suyehiro, K., 2006. "Volcanism in Response to Plate Flexure: Science 313, 1426,
- Ranero, C., Morgan, J. P., McIntosh, K., and Reichert, C., 2003. "Bending-related faulting and mantle serpentinization at the Middle America trench". Nature 425, 367–373
- Stern, R.J., 2002. "Subduction Zones" Reviews of Geophysics, 40,
