Seismologists have it tough. While many researchers can delve right into their object of study--biologists manipulate DNA, physicists, shuffle atoms ahout one by one, and meteorologists even fly through hurricanes--seismologists are separated from thesource of earthquakes by kilometers of solid rock. What's more, the seismic waves that emanate from the depths of a fault during an earthquake only grudgingly reveal details about die processes that generate them. As a result, the deep parts of faults have largely remained terra incognita, leaving researchers unsure about why quakes strike where and when they do. Lately, however, seismologists have managed to glimpse the working heart of faults--and found persistent differences between the fault sections that generate earthquakes and those that don't.
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