Since such transients typically follow earthquakes and exhibit nonlinear time dependence, in continental crustal deformation studies they have been frequently attributed to relaxation of the lower crust and upper mantle. Historically, relatively little attention has been devoted to stress diffusion through the ocean basins compared with continental lithosphere because of the relative lack of geodetic observations. This pattern bears a direct relationship to the horizontal velocity field. Between these two regions must lie a region of tension, i.e., positive . Arrows give the direction of slip associated with each of the four events considered, with length proportional to total seismic moment.
Deformation is evaluated at Earth's surface.
Heavy lines denote the fault planes used to model the subduction events. Although this is useful for demonstrating the pulse-like behavior of the stress diffusion process, we believe that earthquake triggering potential at affected plate boundaries is most closely related to the absolute postseismic velocity of the adjacent oceanic lithosphere. The model predicts well anomalous geodetic velocities within the Pacific Basin observed from 1984 to 1997. Time-dependent transient velocity and displacement of the adjacent Pacific margin lithosphere is superimposed. Application to the oceanic mantle, J. Geophys.