Ryukyu Trench

Red line indicates the bathymetric low of the Ryukyu Trench

The Ryukyu Trench (琉球海溝, Ryūkyū kaikō), also called Nansei-Shotō Trench, is a 1398 km (868 mi)[1] long oceanic trench located along the southeastern edge of Japan's Ryukyu Islands in the Philippine Sea in the Pacific Ocean, between northeastern Taiwan and southern Japan. The trench has a maximum depth of 7460 m (24,476 ft).[1] The trench is the result of oceanic crust of the Philippine Plate obliquely subducting beneath the continental crust of the Eurasian plate[2] at a rate of approximately 52 mm/yr.[3] In conjunction with the adjacent Nankai Trough to the northeast, subduction of the Philippine plate has produced 34 volcanoes.[4] The largest earthquake to have been recorded along the Ryukyu Trench, the 1968 Hyūga-nada earthquake, was magnitude 7.5 and occurred along the northernmost part of the trench[3] on 1 April 1968.[5] This earthquake also produced a tsunami.

  1. ^ a b "Ryukyu Trench". Marine Places. Oceana.org. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  2. ^ Allaby, Alissa; Michael Allaby (1999). "Ryukyu Trench". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  3. ^ a b Nishiwaza, Azusa; Kentaro Kaneda; Mitsuhiro Oikawa (2009). "Seismic Structure of the Northern End of the Ryukyu Trench Subduction Zone, Southeast of Kyushu, Japan". Earth, Planets and Space. 61 (8): 37–40. Bibcode:2009EP&S...61E..37N. doi:10.1186/BF03352942.
  4. ^ Chang-Hwa, Chang-Hwa (2003). "The Caldera Eruptions in Ryukyu Arc: As Inferred the Thermal Anomaly in Kyushu". Journal of the Balneological Society of Japan. 53 (3). Science Links Japan: 90–91. Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 3 Mar 2012.
  5. ^ Yuji, Yagi; M. Kikuchi; T. Sagiya (2001). "Co-seismic slip, post-seismic slip, and aftershocks associated with two large earthquakes in 1996 in Hyuga-nada, Japan". Earth, Planets and Space. 53 (8): 793–803. Bibcode:2001EP&S...53..793Y. doi:10.1186/BF03351677.