Week 5 - Donovan Olson

One place that I have always wanted to Travel to is the island of Japan. Seeing as how I am an IT major, Japan is always known for having the “latest and greatest” when it comes to technologies around the world. I have also been very intrigued by the number of rituals that exist several hundreds of years ago, and still have been active throughout the years. Additionally, one of my closest friends was from Japan.

One example of a convergent plate margin can be seen near the coast of Japan. In this example, we can see the western portion of the Pacific Ocean plate being subducted underneath the Asian continent plate. These trenches that can be formed from this compression of plates can reach depths of 10 KM. To look at the process a little more in depth, the oceanic lithosphere moves towards the continent of Asia. These two lithospheric plates ultimately meet at a trench, with the most commonly known as the Mariana Trench which is the deepest ocean depth ever recorded. Earthquakes are common along this stretch of land around the globe which can also be a direct result of the volcanic activity that happens in that area. This convergent plate boundary can also be referred to as a Benioff zone. Which can be seen in the picture below. When this process takes place, the subducting oceanic lithosphere moves under the continental crust where it is melted very rapidly.

(Magnet, 2018)

(Magnet, 2018)

(Lexica, 2018)

(Lonely Planet, 2018)

When speaking in terms of faults, the Pacific plate is moving west at about 3.5 inches per year which in turn creates a thrust fault. At this point, plates from the pacific move underneath the older rock (Asia) and changes can be very rapidly turning into earthquakes as mentioned before. This is why that nearly 2,000 quacks can be felt by those living on the island of Japan.  

Donovan Olson

References: 

Magnet(2018). Retrieved from https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5268466088047182623#editor/target=post;postID=363629556757552892

Lonely Planet (2018). Retrieved from https://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan