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jlittlenz t1_j8gliam wrote

Reply to comment by CrustalTrudger in How did they find the exact boundaries of tectonic plates? by Forsaken_Alfalfa_746

At subduction zones, can the effect of the (presumably) lower temperature and so higher density of the subducted plate on seismic waves be used to map the boundary?

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CrustalTrudger t1_j8htybu wrote

Seismic tomography, which exploits changes in seismic wave speed as a function of temperature and other properties to "image" the interior structure of the lithosphere and mantle, can help fill in some details of the geometry of plate boundaries with depth, but I'm not aware of an application where it's been used to reveal the location of a plate boundary we didn't already know about through other means.

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