Abstract
The discovery of double-planed zones of intermediate-depth seismicity associated with subducting oceanic lithosphere (refs 1–7 and L.S.H. and K.H.J., in preparation) has generated much interest in the origin and distribution of stresses in descending plates. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain why double zones occur8. Here we investigate the role of thermal stresses for the state of stress in a descending plate and test whether they can account for the observed characteristics of double seismic zones. By modelling the descending slab as a thin elastic plate and using the temperatures in the slab estimated by Toksoz et al.9, we find that the polarities of thermally generated stresses agree with those obtained from the focal mechanisms of earthquakes in the two zones. Thermal stresses also can explain the separation between the two zones of seismicity at shallow depths and their gradual merging at greater depth.
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