HEAT-FLOW measurements near the San Andreas fault fail to detect any frictional heating. This is a long-standing problem in tectonics that has come to be known as the San Andreas fault heat-flow paradox, The conventional interpretation is that the shear stresses that exist on the fault during sliding must be at least an order of magnitude less than the 100 MPa or so expected from laboratory measurements of rock friction, but just how that happens is baffling. Two papers published in Nature this year, one by Melosh and the other by David Scott (on page 592 of this issue) propose solutions to the puzzle.
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