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Articles | Volume 16, issue 10
Articles | Volume 16, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-16-1059-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-16-1059-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 16, issue 10
Research article
 | 
10 Oct 2025
Research article |  | 10 Oct 2025

Seismicity and thermal structure of the St. Paul Transform System, equatorial Atlantic: insights from focal depth analysis

Guilherme W. S. de Melo, Ingo Grevemeyer, Sibiao Liu, Marcia Maia, and Lars Rüpke

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Cited articles

Abercrombie, R. E. and Ekström, G.: Earthquake slip on oceanic transform faults, Nature, 410, 74–77, https://doi.org/10.1038/35065064, 2001. 
Barão, L. M., Trzaskos, B., Angulo, R. J., and de Souza, M. C.: Deformation and structural evolution of mantle peridotites during exhumation on transform faults: A forced transition from ductile to brittle regime, J. Struct. Geol., 133, 103981, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsg.2020.103981, 2020. 
Behn, M. D., Boettcher, M. S., and Hirth, G.: Thermal structure of oceanic transform faults, Geology, 35, 307–310, https://doi.org/10.1130/G23112A.1, 2007. 
Bergman, E. A. and Solomon, S. C.: Transform fault earthquakes in the North Atlantic: Source mechanisms and depth of faulting, J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 93, 9027–9057, https://doi.org/10.1029/JB093iB08p09027, 1988. 
Bianchi, M. B., Assumpção, M., Rocha, M. P., Carvalho, J. M., Azevedo, P. A., Fontes, S. L., Dias, F. L., Ferreira, J. M., Nascimento, A. F., Ferreira, M. V., and Costa, I. S.: The Brazilian seismographic network (RSBR): Improving seismic monitoring in Brazil, Seismol. Res. Lett., 89, 452–457, https://doi.org/10.1785/0220170227, 2018. 
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The St. Paul Transform System on the equatorial Atlantic is a seismically oceanic transform fault system. This study re-examines the focal depths of 35 earthquakes (MW 5.3–6.9) from Transforms A, B, and C. The data suggest that the seismogenic zone ranges from 5 to 18 km deep, with the deepest occurring in cooler lithosphere around the center of the transform segments. This challenges earlier hypotheses and indicates a global pattern of cooler mantle in center of oceanic transform faults.
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