Earth and Planetary Science Letters最新文献

{"title":"Coupled trace element and Hf-isotope measurements of Hadean through Paleoarchean zircons from the Singhbhum Craton indicate derivation from a long-lived, mantle-derived protocrust","authors":"Heather Kirkpatrick ,&nbsp;Emily Stoll ,&nbsp;Nadja Drabon","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119813","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119813","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Due to the dearth of rock records during the Hadean, little is known about early crustal chemistry and geodynamics. Here, we present zircon trace and rare earth element and Lu-Hf measurements of zircons ∼ 3.3 Ga to ∼ 4.2 Ga from the Older Metamorphic Tonalitic Gneiss in the Singhbhum Craton to better understand geodynamic changes during the Hadean and Archean. We find decreasing, subchondritic zircon ε_HfT among zircons &gt; 3.7 Ga and no indication of addition of new crustal material during the Hadean after initial formation of this protocrust. Trace and rare earth element analyses of &gt; 3.7 Ga grains indicate derivation from a source heavily influenced by the enriched mantle with little evidence for flux melting, and no clear evidence for deep melting. At ∼ 3.7 Ga, we observe an average ε_HfT increase indicating new additions of juvenile felsic material. These zircons still show predominantly mantle-like trace elements, but with the appearance of some arc-like signatures and evidence for crustal thickening. This period of crustal reorganization speaks towards a shift in geodynamic regime characterized by the onset of communication between the mantle and the crust from which the zircons formed at this location. The presence of long-lived, mantle-derived protocrust in both India and South Africa appears to suggest the possibility of a local stagnant lid, albeit more data is necessary to confirm this. The presence of a transition of ε_HfT data globally may point towards an important, diachronous period of crustal reorganization 3.9 – 3.6 Ga ago.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"677 ","pages":"Article 119813"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dual controls on lithospheric dripping: The role of mantle flow and orogen scale","authors":"Qiuling Wang ,&nbsp;Huilin Wang ,&nbsp;Zhuang Li","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119795","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119795","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lithospheric dripping is a fundamental mechanism for recycling thickened lithosphere in orogens, but its dynamic controls remain incompletely understood. Classical models emphasizing intra-lithospheric dynamics predict symmetric lithosphere downwelling with coupled surface subsidence/uplift and volcanic activities, consistent with observations in small orogens. However, these models cannot explain the asymmetric dripping geometries and spatially decoupled magmatic-topographic signals observed in some large orogens. In this study, we use numerical models to investigate how mantle flow interacts with different orogenic architectures to modulate dripping styles. Our results show that thin and cold orogens maintain strong intra-lithospheric coupling that restricts mantle flow influence, producing classical dripping behavior characterized by localized, near-vertical instability descent and symmetric surface responses. In contrast, thick, hot, and moderately wide orogens with weak intra-lithospheric viscous coupling enable mantle flow to entrain and amplify lithospheric drips, resulting in extensive lithospheric thinning and laterally offset topographic and magmatic responses. Orogen width influences the amount and extent of lithospheric thinning. Broad orogens that maintain a high lithospheric viscosity result in more localized removal. Lithosphere thinning is restricted to drip-adjacent zones. These results can reconcile the diverse dripping styles and surface responses observed in various orogens, demonstrating that lithospheric dripping is a tiered process governed by the interplay of mantle flow and orogen-scale properties, where orogenic thermal-mechanical characteristics control sensitivity to basal flow. The results offer new insights into understanding mantle-lithosphere interactions and scale-dependent orogenic evolution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"677 ","pages":"Article 119795"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global evidence for the contribution of Earth’s surface topography to seismic PP precursor waves","authors":"Tuo Zhang ,&nbsp;Christoph Sens-Schönfelder ,&nbsp;Ye Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119814","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119814","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Seismic precursors to the PP phase have long been attributed to scattering from mid-mantle heterogeneities, often interpreted as signatures of subducted slab remnants. However, using a global dataset of high-quality records from shallow earthquakes, we identify a signal of consistent, progressively increasing energy over time preceding PP arrivals, which strongly correlates with PP surface reflection points, particularly over continental regions. Beamforming analysis reveals two distinct slowness branches in the precursor energy that align with theoretical predictions for P waves deflected by topographic slopes. Monte Carlo simulations incorporating realistic surface topography accurately reproduce the observed arrival times and amplitudes of the precursors, whereas models based solely on mantle scattering fail to match the data. These results demonstrate that surface topography, rather than the mantle structures, dominates the generation of globally observed PP precursors. This reinterpretation calls for caution in using PP precursors to infer crust or mantle heterogeneity and highlights the critical role of surface effects in seismic waveform modelling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"677 ","pages":"Article 119814"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A model for Cenozoic seawater chemistry and carbon cycling","authors":"Laurence A. Coogan,&nbsp;Stan E. Dosso","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119811","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119811","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We present a model for the evolution of seawater chemistry and carbon cycling over the Cenozoic forced by changes in global mean temperature, continental weatherability, ocean crust accretion and solid Earth CO₂ degassing. The model tracks fluxes from continental silicate and carbonate weathering, seafloor weathering, marine silicate diagenesis, high-temperature hydrothermal circulation and carbonate sediment formation. The carbon system in the ocean is tracked through alkalinity (ALK) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) fluxes allowing the entire carbon system to be calculated. The model has 48 parameters that are treated as unknowns, and we use a Bayesian inversion to determine the probable range of parameter values. Reasonable fits to reconstructions of Cenozoic seawater compositions (e.g., Mg, Ca, δ⁷Li, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and pCO₂ records are achieved. Consistent with other studies that consider the carbon system in seawater, the model results have limited change in seawater DIC and ALK over the Cenozoic. Key results include that the: (i) decrease in pCO₂ over the Cenozoic is driven by changing ocean chemistry (increased ratio of ALK to DIC) without a systematic change in the total carbon content of the ocean-atmosphere system, and (ii) CO₂ degassing rate and pCO₂ are decoupled. These results are inconsistent with commonly used geological carbon cycle models (e.g., GEOCARB, COPSE) but are readily understood in terms of seawater carbon chemistry and carbon cycling. Decreasing the Ca content of seawater at the same time as deepening the carbonate compensation depth requires increasing the carbonate ion concentration in the deep ocean; in the models this results from an increased ratio of ALK to DIC.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"677 ","pages":"Article 119811"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145882954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Generation of large transient porosity at the brittle to semi-ductile transition","authors":"Erina Prastyani ,&nbsp;Benoît Cordonnier ,&nbsp;François Renard","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119805","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119805","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fluid circulation within Earth’s crust is contingent on the presence of connected porosity. Yet, at depths near the brittle to ductile transition regimes, where the base of the seismogenic zone is located, high pressure compacts the rock, reducing porosity and inhibiting fluid circulation. At greater depths, plastic mechanisms during ductile deformation further reduce the likelihood of porosity generation. In this study, we experimentally simulated the brittle to semi-ductile transition in Carrara marble by performing triaxial deformation experiments coupled with time-lapse 3D synchrotron X-ray microtomography at five confining pressures, ranging from 5 MPa to 70 MPa at room temperature and tracked the evolution of porosity over time. Contrary to the prevailing belief, our results show that porosity increases with increasing axial stress at stresses corresponding to the brittle to semi-ductile transition, where fluid circulation is thought to be impeded. In both the semi-brittle and semi-ductile regimes, the total porosity (averaged over the entire sample) exhibits similar values, close to 18%, increasing from an initial porosity of approximately 1% at equivalent axial strain. Although the porosity is comparable, the dominant deformation mechanisms differ: localized shear zones and distributed microcracking characterize the semi-brittle regime, whereas distributed microcracking, without localization, becomes more prominent in the semi-ductile regime. Our findings reveal the formation of high porosity within the semi-brittle and semi-ductile regimes and offer new insight into how this porosity, interpreted as transient within the crust, may enable fluid circulation at the base of the seismogenic zone in Earth’s crust.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"677 ","pages":"Article 119805"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145882955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shifting carbonate burial between oceanic and continental crust across Earth history","authors":"Jon M. Husson ,&nbsp;Shanan E. Peters","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119810","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119810","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Chemical weathering fluxes determine carbonate burial rates on geologic timescales, but the locus of carbonate burial is sensitive to tectonic and biologic boundary conditions that have changed across Earth history. Depositional setting is important because sediments on oceanic crust are readily recycled on the timescale of seafloor subduction, whereas sediments on continental crust can be sequestered over much longer durations. Here we present records of carbonate abundance in continental sediments for the past 3600 million years based on the North American components of the Macrostrat geologic column database and globally-distributed geological map units. Whether carbonate abundance is measured in absolute (area, volume) or in relative terms (carbonate normalized by total sediment), secular patterns emerge. In the Precambrian, carbonate abundance in continental crust is generally low. In the Phanerozoic, it climbs abruptly to a Paleozoic maximum and then declines towards the present. Decrease in shelf carbonate abundance across the Phanerozoic has been previously documented, driven in part by evolving paleogeography and the early Mesozoic evolution of pelagic calcifiers, which helped to shift carbonate burial from continental to oceanic crust. A Precambrian low in continental carbonate has received less attention. Here we propose that carbonate burial during much of the Precambrian was dominated by accumulation on (or within) oceanic crust and then shifted to continental crust in the early Paleozoic. Carbonate burial fluxes calibrated from the surviving rock record are an order of magnitude larger in the early Paleozoic than they appear to have been in the Proterozoic, with a step-wise increase occurring during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition. This observation implies a large and relatively abrupt shift in the principal locus of CaCO₃ burial, from short-lived oceanic crust during much of the Proterozoic to longer-surviving continental crust in the early Paleozoic. Oceanic crust became, once again, a significant locus for carbonate accumulation during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The Paleozoic accommodation of most of the global carbon burial flux on the continents has many implications, including for secular changes in carbon cycling rates and the sensitivity of the surface environment to CO₂ injections.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"677 ","pages":"Article 119810"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ancient, buoyant mantle under the Sierra Leone Ridge in the equatorial Atlantic","authors":"Camilla Sani ,&nbsp;Alessio Sanfilippo ,&nbsp;Felix Genske ,&nbsp;Carlotta Ferrando ,&nbsp;Daniele Brunelli ,&nbsp;Anna Cipriani ,&nbsp;Alexander Peyve ,&nbsp;Sergey Skolotnev ,&nbsp;Marco Ligi ,&nbsp;Andreas Stracke","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119812","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119812","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Sierra Leone Ridge is the equatorial portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) between the St. Paul (0–1°N) and Doldrums (7–9°N) Fracture Zones. At ∼80 Ma, a submarine plateau –the Sierra Leone Rise which is now located off-ridge on the African plate and the Céarà Rise on the South American plate– formed due to excess magma production. Incompatible element-enriched MORB with high Sr-Pb but low Nd isotope ratios suggests that the high magma production could result from the interaction of a mantle plume with the Sierra Leone Ridge, the so-called Sierra Leone mantle plume that may now be centered at ∼1.7°N along the MAR. In order to define the nature of the mantle source beneath the Sierra Leone Ridge, we present major-trace element concentrations and radiogenic isotope ratios from abyssal peridotites and MORB from 4 to 7°N along the MAR. High Hf isotope ratios are preserved in clinopyroxenes from abyssal peridotites (Ɛ_Hf = 12–54), indicating that the mantle beneath the Sierra Leone Ridge underwent extensive melting several 10⁸–10⁹ years before remelting under the present MAR. Most peridotites have high Ɛ_Hf, but low Ɛ_Nd similar to MORBs, although some extend to unusually low Ɛ_Nd of ∼-6. We argue that these peridotites not only melted, but were also re-enriched in compatible elements concurrent to melting in the past, and that such incompatible element re-enriched peridotites are now the main component of the sub-ridge mantle in the Sierra Leone area. Extensive remelting of ancient, incompatible element re-enriched peridotite that is compositionally buoyant, in addition to minor amounts of recycled crust, may therefore have caused the abundant magmatism that characterizes this portion of the MAR since formation of the Sierra Leone and Céarà Rise ∼80 Ma ago, and accounts for its elevated topography.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"677 ","pages":"Article 119812"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Organic carbon burial and ocean redox modulated biotic recovery after the latest Ordovician crisis","authors":"Wei Tang ,&nbsp;Mu Liu ,&nbsp;Heng-Ye Wei ,&nbsp;Li-Guang Wu ,&nbsp;Kai Lu ,&nbsp;Jian Wang ,&nbsp;Xian-Hua Li","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119794","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119794","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Widespread marine anoxia is considered a key impediment to recovery following the late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME), yet the spatiotemporal evolution of early Silurian ocean redox condition remains unresolved. Benthic ecosystem recovery on the South China inner shelf coincided with a global cooling trend during the Rhuddanian–Aeronian transition, but its drivers and links to redox dynamics remain poorly understood. Here we reconstruct redox conditions across a shelf transect in the Yangtze region using iron speciation, redox-sensitive trace elements (RSTEs), C_org/P ratios, and δ¹³C_org data from three sections spanning inner- to outer-shelf environments. Combined with a global compilation of 49 continental shelf sections and a new CA-ID-TIMS zircon U–Pb date of 439.51 ± 0.23 Ma, the data indicate that reducing conditions have persisted for ∼2.91 ± 0.39 million years on the inner shelf after the LOME, followed by progressive reoxygenation beginning in the late Rhuddanian and extending into the Aeronian. A sharp rise in global organic carbon burial rates—up to ∼23 times the Hirnantian baseline, together with coeval rises in ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios indicative of intensified continental silicate weathering, would have driven a drawdown of atmospheric CO₂ and global cooling. This climatic shift likely enhanced shelf ventilation and oxygen solubility, facilitating benthic metazoan recovery in shallow settings, while outer-shelf environments remained anoxic until the mid-Aeronian. These findings underscore the tight coupling among carbon cycling, climate regulation, redox evolution, and biotic recovery, highlighting continental shelves as key sites of carbon–climate feedback in the aftermath of mass extinction events.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"676 ","pages":"Article 119794"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145838310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coral reef terrace age deduced from retreating knickpoints","authors":"Yiran Wang ,&nbsp;Aron J. Meltzner ,&nbsp;Michael E. Oskin ,&nbsp;Jennifer Quye-Sawyer ,&nbsp;Lin Thu Aung ,&nbsp;Noelynna Ramos","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119792","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119792","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The accurate dating of Quaternary coral terraces has long been challenging due to recrystallization of aragonite corals. Here, we present an approach to infer terrace age based on (1) the linkage between sea-level drop and river knickpoint formation and (2) the history of sea-level rise and fall recorded by the elevation–age relationship of knickpoints. Our study in northwestern Luzon, Philippines, combines field surveys, sedimentological analysis, and topographic and river-profile analysis, through which we map the coral reef terrace extent and correlate terrace outer edges to the initiation location of major knickpoints in adjacent river profiles. Through χ transformation, the knickpoint retreat distance is equivalent to knickpoint/terrace age, and therefore the elevation–retreat distance relationship of the knickpoints can be used to determine the age of the correlated terrace. Using this method, we deduce that the lower coral reef terrace sequences (T1-T4) correspond to Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5a, 5c, 5e, and 7a, respectively. Furthermore, we suggest the coastal area is gently tilting seaward with an average uplift rate of ∼1 m/kyr, and the highest terrace surface (420–440 m) may be more than 400 kyr old. We propose that this technique offers a promising solution for dating coral reef terraces in uplifting coastal regions where absolute age-dating techniques fail due to diagenetic alteration, and for terraces associated with bedrock rivers that developed before the penultimate glacial period.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"676 ","pages":"Article 119792"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145766090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strain rate concentration along the Niigata-Kobe tectonic zone, central Japan as explained by 2D collision numerical models with visco-elasto-plastic rheology","authors":"Erika J. Moreno ,&nbsp;Shoichi Yoshioka ,&nbsp;Vlad C. Manea ,&nbsp;Marina Manea ,&nbsp;Nobuaki Suenaga","doi":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119806","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119806","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Unusual high strain rate concentration and WNW-ESE shortening along the Niigata-Kobe tectonic zone (NKTZ) are reported by GEONET (GNSS Earth observation network). The highest concentration of strain rate has been observed in the Niigata Prefecture, NE Japan, where earthquakes with magnitude M_j &gt; 6 have been recorded. In order to explain the shortening along the NKTZ, different hypotheses are put forward. One of them relates the strain rate concentration near the Earth's surface to weakening of the lower crust caused by the interaction between the continental Amurian plate and the continental North American plate, or the oceanic PHS (Philippine Sea) plate/NA (North American) plate and the oceanic PAC (Pacific) plate/NA plate. Other studies suggest the existence of low-viscosity weak zones beneath the upper continental crust caused by upwelling dehydrated fluids, melts from the PHS and PAC plates, and presence of soft sediments. In this study, we employ two-dimensional high-resolution thermomechanical numerical models with visco-elasto-plastic rheology subject to simple horizontal compression, as well as a combination of horizontal extension and compression. We select three profiles across the SW, central, and NE parts of the NKTZ aligned with the direction of maximum contraction of the principal strain. Numerical models that incorporate hydrated lower crust, magmatic intrusions, and soft sediments are tested against the observations along these three profiles. Our numerical results indicate that significant surface strain concentration develops where low-viscosity weak zones, represented by fluids, magmatism, and soft sediments, are localized at different crustal levels. These weak zones consequently play a key role in fault development and in the Earth’s surface strain concentration along the NKTZ.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11481,"journal":{"name":"Earth and Planetary Science Letters","volume":"676 ","pages":"Article 119806"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145838312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}