CRSEIZE was an IRIS PASSCAL joint seismic/geodetic experiment to investigate properties of earthquakes that occur along the plate interface at subduction zone boundaries. These earthquakes release about 90% of seismic moment release globally and the largest magnitude earthquakes recorded occur at this type of plate boundary. This experiment deployed land and ocean bottom seismometers and GPS receivers in Costa Rica to explore the width (depth extent) of the plate interface capable of generating earthquakes, the amount of plate motion locked on the plate interface, and the properties that control earthquake generation at the plate interface. Both spatial and temporal variations in these properties were revealed.

Contributed by Susan Schwartz