Slip partitioning along an idealized subduction plate boundary at deep slow slip conditions

Below the base of many subduction seismogenic zones, the plate interface periodically slips at rates 1 to 2 orders of magnitude faster than tectonic plate velocities. A number of competing hypotheses exist to explain the mechanisms for these slow slip events (SSEs), but they remain incompletely tested because we do not know how deformation is partitioned across the lithologically complex plate boundary interface. We use the deepest exposure of...