Earthquakes off the coast of northern Japan, due to stress between plate boundaries, have happened regularly over the centuries, with sometimes devastating effects. From southern Hokkaidō to around ...

Within the next 30 years, a highly destructive Nankai Trough megathrust earthquake is predicted to hit southwest Japan. Understanding long-term slow slip events that occur along the plate interface ...

Scientists have discovered slow-moving low-frequency tremors which occur at the shallow subduction plate boundary in Hyuga-nada, off east Kyushu. This indicates the possibility that the plate boundary ...

Plate tectonics is the theory used to explain the structure of the Earth’s crust and many of the associated phenomenon. The rigid lithosphere is split into 15 major plates that slowly move on top of ...

The solid ground that we all live on forms a thin crust around the Earth. It’s no more than 50km thick - and it’s just the upper part of the lithosphere. Below it is the upper mantle. It’s mostly ...