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SEIZE pages information

What is the Seismogenic Zone Experiment?

Most of the world’s great earthquakes occur in subduction zones. Although plate tectonics provides the underlying explanation, only a small portion of the plate contact generates earthquakes; this portion is the Seismogenic Zone Initiative (SEIZE). The seismogenic zone provides both fundamental scientific challenges and is of great societal relevance. SEIZE will address the following questions:

What is the nature of strong, locked parts of seismogenic zones?
What are the temporal relationships among stress, strain, and fluid composition throughout the earthquake cycle?
What controls the up- and down-dip limits of the seismogenic zone?
What is the nature of tsunamigenic earthquake zone?
What is the role of large thrust earthquakes in mass flux of material in the subduction system?

The Central American and Nankai Trough (Japan) areas were selected for focussed study by the geoscientific community during a workshop in 1997 (see the SEIZE science plan for selection procedure and criteria).

SEIZE Nuggets from 2009 Review Documents: Nuggets are available online!

SEIZE web pages:

Focus Areas:	Central America
	Costa Rica-Nicaragua Focus Area Map
	Nankai Trough
	Nankai Focus Area Map
Meetings:	The Next Decade of The Seismogenic Zone Experiment. Mt. Hood, Oregon, 2008
	Subduction Factory and Seismogenic Zone Studies in Central America. Costa Rica, 2007
Meeting pages contain abstracts, bibliographies, presentations, lecture notes and much more information.	Mini-Workshop at AGU 2006 - "Seismogenesis and Subduction Fluxes in the Middle America Subduction Zone: The role of IODP and ORION"
	SEIZE 2003 Theoretical Institute
	NanTroSEIZE Workshop 2002
	Seismogenic Zone Experiment (SEIZE) workshop, Hawaii 1997
Documents:	SEIZE Science Plan
	NSF-funded SEIZE awards
	Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Drilling and Observatory - IODP Proposal (October 2001)
	Scientific Proceedings from ODP legs 190 and 196
Graphics:	MARGINS Presentation materials
	Earthquake maps and cross-sections
	Nankai figures
Links:	University of Miami, RSMAS Geodesy Lab
	TUCAN Imaging Proposal - Boston University
	A 3-D Seismic Investigation in the Nankai Trough: US-Japan Collaborative Program
	Improving Geophysical Observations in Cascadia

Please feel free to suggest additions to these pages!
E-mail suggestions to the MARGINS Office.