Abstract
Arising from: R. Smalley Jr, M. A. Ellis, J. Paul & R. B. Van Arsdale Nature 435, 1088–1090 (2005); R. Smalley et al. reply.
It is not fully understood how or why the inner areas of tectonic plates deform, leading to large, although infrequent, earthquakes. Smalley et al.1 offer a potential breakthrough by suggesting that surface deformation in the central United States accumulates at rates comparable to those across plate boundaries. However, we find no statistically significant deformation in three independent analyses of the data set used by Smalley et al., and conclude therefore that only the upper bounds of magnitude and repeat time for large earthquakes can be inferred at present.
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References
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Calais, E., Mattioli, G., DeMets, C. et al. Tectonic strain in plate interiors?. Nature 438, E9–E10 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04428
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04428
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