科技英语新闻:Scientists look at drilling sea floor to study "silent" quakes

Other possibilities for studying slow-slip events with drilling techniques were in central Japan and Costa Rica.

Workshop participants would discuss a framework on how ocean drilling could be used to understand the origin of silent earthquakes.

Any international project to drill off Gisborne would take many years and be done in stages, and depend on the availability of a scientific ocean drilling ship, which were usually booked years in advance, said Wallace.

"Findings from such a project would have global significance as it would have the potential to significantly boost our understanding of the mechanics of subduction zone faults and the earthquakes that occur on them."

The workshop from Aug. 1 to 5 is funded by New Zealand's Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, to which New Zealand belongs, and the National Science Foundation in the United States.